It Started With a Code: A Splatoon Fanfic
by PurpleDiamonds92
Summary: Mysterious behaviors have been happening around Inkopolis Square, including a strange hacker who can't be defeated, a surprise attack during a performance, and the sudden disappearance of a group of inklings along with a celebrity. In the end, all the evidence points to one inkling girl, who unknowingly became the main reason everything happened.
1. Chapter 1

**(Note: This chapter has been updated to fix Line-break issues)**

 **Hello!  
So, this is my first story.**

 **I'm not the best at writing, but I'll give it a shot. I wouldn't mind if you gave me some tips on how to improve my stories. Oh, and please notify me of any spelling/grammar errors if they're bothersome or whatever. Thanks!**

 **Chapter 1:**

Hailey yawned, climbing out of her apartment bed. She brushed the yellow hair from her face and looked out the window. The sun was shining faintly through some tinted gray clouds. She could see the Inkopolis Tower miles away and the Inkopolis square almost practically below her. She loved the view; it reminded her of her apartment in Inkopolis Plaza and how the view left her mesmerized.

She reached for her SquidPhone, which was lying on her cupboard beside, along with a cup of water and a half-eaten cookie. She picked up the phone and turned it on. There were no new messages.

Hailey sighed and put the phone down before walking to the shower to get cleaned up. Another week, another round of turf.

Hailey belonged to the Deluxe Squad; a relatively well-known squad whose theme color was teal. Her friend Jet was the leader, and his younger sister Ari was the "assistant". Hailey and her other partner, David, didn't join until much later.

The squad was known for their exceptional strength during Splatfests, and their constant praise from admirers. But what was perhaps the number one thing people talked about was the fact that Hailey was a Luna Blaster main.

Hailey first discovered the weapon not to long after the final Splatfest. Until then, she was an ordinary Soda Slosher main. One day, she decided to give the Luna Blaster Neo a try. She didn't really enjoy using the Slosher anymore, and she always liked the idea of having a blaster. She didn't like it too much though, and asked if she could swap it out for another Luna Blaster. Of course, however, that got her kicked out. Sheldon _hated_ refunds.

Hailey received the Luna Blaster on her 15th birthday along with 5 Sea Snails and some new gear. She fell in love with it instantly, and hadn't touched the Soda Slosher since. A lot of people accused her of being "cheap" and "desperate" and even called her a "statistics whore". Hailey didn't care much. She enjoyed the weapon, whether she was desperate or not.

Hailey finished her shower and stepped into her closet room to get changed. She threw on her gear: an Annaki Drive Tee, a Squid Hairclip, and Crazy Arrows. Right as she slipped on her last shoe, her phone buzzed. She eagerly grabbed it. It was from Ari.

 _Ari: Where are you? Breakfast started half an hour ago!_

"Oh great." Hailey sighed. She must've overslept again. She checked the clock that hung on her bedroom wall. 8:30.

"I'll be fine." she shrugged, and grabbed her SquidPhone, leaving a note for Ari. She walked out the door, and sprinted down the steps before exiting the complex.

She walked out into the morning sunlight, which was a lot hotter than she expected it to feel. She held her hand up and tried to shield the glare, but it didn't work. Se tried putting on shades, and even _that_ didn't work. She sighed angrily and checked her phone. Her message was still there.

 _Hailey: I'm on my way. Save a muffin for me, please. Preferably the Apple Cinnamon ones._

* * *

Meanwhile, on the farther side of town, there was a huge apartment complex that stood higher than the majority of the buildings in the city. Usually, rich people like the Squid Sisters stayed in this area. But a few months ago, Marie and Callie moved back to their old home. Pearl and Marina refused to buy it, no matter how many discounts offered. So now, the complex was just an empty building. No one really moved in there unless there was a concert or if they were super rich. There have been many rumors, however, that especially talented Maximum Level players could be offered a discount for the complex.

Behind the complex was the Pearl and Marina mansion. It was hidden behind other neighborhoods, and many trees. Despite being a mansion, however, it wasn't too big. It was bigger than an average mansion, yes, but not too big to the point where it'll create attention.

Pearl and Marina were in the mansion in the living room, getting ready to go to the Square. The Off the Hook news came on at 9:15, and they would have only ten minutes to spare if they made it on time.

Pearl, despite being the energetic once, was laidback about the situation. Marina, however, was not.

"Microphone? Check. Phone? Check. Uh...headphones? Right, I'm wearing them. Did I put on my boots?! Of course I did! Um…"

"Stop sweating up a storm, Marina." Pearl chuckled, taking a huge bite out of a muffin. "We'll be on time."

"How do you know, Pearl? What if there's traffic? What if our taxi doesn't make it? What if-"

Pearl rolled her eyes. "First of all, most inklings _walk._ Secondly, our taxi has only been late _once._ Once! And even then it was only, what? Five minutes late? Stop worrying so much, alright?"

Marina nodded and smiled. "Right, what am I worrying about?"

And she then burst into tears.

That caught Pearl off by surprise. Marina cried, yes, but not in a random situation like this! She had always maintained herself carefully and only cried when she knew she couldn't resist.

Pearl remembered when _she_ was the one crying because of the backlash, and Marina would always find a way to make her laugh or smile.

But now it was her turn, and she was only thinking one thing:

 _What the hell do I do?_

"Hey, um-" Pearl bent down towards Marina. "Are you alright?"

Marina sniffed. "Yeah, just a little stressed I guess."

Pearl frowned. "But why are you crying?"

Marina sniffed again. "I really don't know. This whole concert thing is taking a toll on me I guess. We're doing a big premiere and…"

"Stop talking."

"W-what?" Marina looked up, slightly offended. "What did you just say?"

"It's just...I don't... I'm sorry, Marina, but you shouldn't be crying. Of all the things you're worrying about, it's the stupid premiere. I get it; the stress has gotten to you. But it's something you shouldn't worry about that much. Here, let me tell you something. This premiere is gonna be a blast, I'm telling you. They'll love us! We're gonna have our best concert yet! We're gonna perform our songs and have the Squid Sisters join us for a final mash up! Isn't that great?"

"I guess so." Marina sighed, wiping her eyes.

"They'll love it so much, they'll just _have_ to adore us!" Pearl continued.

"What about you?"

Pearl stopped talking. "Huh?"

"What about you? About the...loving part..." Marina asked quietly.

Pearl shrugged. "The insults don't sting anymore. I wonder if that's what happens when you keep getting stung by bees. Eventually you're just like, 'Dammit, not again!' because you're used to the pain and it's now just an annoying poke and a swelling bump."

Marina laughed. Pearl always knew how to get her.

"Well, our taxi's here." Pearl began, looking out the window. "You want the front seat?"

"Actually Pearlie, I'll let you have it."

"Aw hell yea!" Pearl shouted before speeding out the door.

* * *

"Took you long enough." Ari grumbled as Hailey took a seat next to Jet.

Every morning, the squad had their breakfast at the JellyFish Cafe. They'd usually go late, when everyone else was gone, so that they could have some time to speak privately. After a 20-minute chatter, the squad would head to the Square to listen to the news before going into battle.

Hailey looked around. Just as she expected, the cafe was empty besides the four of them. The employees were in the back preparing extra food. They wouldn't be able to hear anything that the four were saying.

"Oh yeah, here's that muffin you wanted." Ari sighed, pushing the dessert toward Hailey.

"You owe me 15 coins. And eat quickly. Since you're late, we won't have time to discuss plans until we get to the square."

"Oh please, the newscast doesn't come on till 9:15. We have half an hour. That's more than enough to prepare for battle." Hailey muttered through a mouthful of muffin.

"The walk there is 15 minutes." Ari reminded her, taking a last bite of her cheesecake.

"So? We've got time to discuss. But really, do we need to discuss anymore? These days, we do everything on our own…" she trailed off.

"Yeah, we do. And you still owe me 15 coins." Ari scowled.

"You have, like, twenty thousand. You don't need to worry about 15 measly coins." David shrugged, sipping a cup of orange juice.

Ari glared at David and took a sip of her coffee. "Fine. Let's just forget about that and focus on the battle-"

"Speaking of battle…" Jet interrupted, a huge smile now plastered on his face. "I got the new Dualies I've been saving up for. Check them out!"

He pulled out two jet squelcher Dualies out from underneath his bag and set them on the table. The other squad members stared at them and quickly shook their heads.

"Neat, huh?" Jet asked happily.

There was a long silence.

"Why's no one speaking? Are they _that_ breathtaking?" Jet asked again.

The silence continued on for what seemed like ages. Finally, Hailey spoke.

"They uh, sure do look fancy."

"I know right?" Jet smiled broadly.

"They're good." Ari shrugged.

"Not just good, they're spectacular!" Jet bragged, smiling down at them.

"It's honestly not that great." David blurted, standing up. He held his Sploosh O Matic in one hand and an empty cup in the other.

"What?" Jet stood up angrily, knocking his chair to the side.

"Uh oh…" Ari whispered.

"What did you just say about my weapon?" Jet snapped again. He had at least 5 inches on David, and was a lot stronger and tougher. David cowered back and dropped his cup to the ground.

"I-I don't like it that much." David squeaked, trying to reach for the cup he dropped.

"Oh really?" Jet snapped, snatching David's Sploosh O Matic from his hands. "Well how is this piece of shit any better than my Dualies?! Give me 3 reasons! Now!"

"Um…" David froze, not knowing what to do.

"I'm waiting!" Jet spat.

"Can I just have my Sploosh back?" David asked finally.

"You want it back?" Jet raised it into the air. David's purple eyes widened, and he began to panic.

"No! Don't break that!"

"I'm not gonna break it." Jet snickered. He aimed it at the other side of the cafeteria. "I'm just gonna throw it."

He prepared to launch it, ignoring David's pleas. Right before he threw, he felt someone grab his arm sharply. Jet winced. David was clinging to him, refusing to let go.

"What the, let go you stupid-"

"Jet, sit down!" Ari snapped, finally able to speak. "You're bringing attention to yourself!"

"No one is in the cafeteria! Plus, I'm not letting go until this blue-haired idiot apologizes-"

"Jet, seriously!" Hailey snapped, even harsher than Ari, "It's his opinion! And don't you claim to be the strongest person in the squad? The leader of the squad? The toughest squid on the block? Well, I don't think that's possible when something like a simple opinion is gonna set you off! Now sit down!"

There was a long silence. Jet froze, a look of pure hatred in his eyes.

Hailey stood up, her Luna Blaster reflecting the glare from the morning sunlight. If she was gonna have to fight, she was going to fight.

"Jet, please, give my Sploosh back…" David cried, finally letting go. His purple eyes were looking at him miserably.

Jet still stood frozen, his eyes still focused on Hailey before darting to David, then Ari, then David again. Finally, he sat down and shoved the Sploosh O Matic back into David's arms.

"Your lucky your girlfriend has a way with words." Jet growled, folding his arms.

It was no point trying to argue. Jet referred to Hailey as David's "girlfriend" all the time. And besides, he was pissed already. He didn't want to get injured by one of his teammates before the turf match.

"Do you still refer to her as that?" Ari muttered under her breath.

Jet, who practically had magical hearing powers, turned to face his purple-haired sister. "Yup. You have a problem with it?"

"Uh, yea." Hailey rolled her eyes. "Besides, how can he be _my_ boyfriend when he has a crush on Pearl?"

Ari smiled. "I knew it!"

"You promised you wouldn't tell anybody!" David screamed, his whole face turning red instantly.

Jet stood still for what seemed like ages. Then, he burst out laughing, knocking his Dualies to the ground.

"Dude? Pearl? The gremlin? Of all people?" he wheezed.

"I hate you so much, Hailey." David grumbled, his face now even redder than before.

"Love you too." Hailey laughed. She then looked at the clock.

"We gotta go…" Hailey began, grabbing her Luna Blaster.

"Oh yeah, the news will be coming on, soon." David muttered angrily, grabbing his Sploosh and storming out of the cafe

"You coming, Jet?" Ari called.

"Hold on, *wheeze*, let me get my *laugh* Dualies."

"Well we aren't waiting for ya." Ari called after him.

"It'll only take *wheeze* ten seconds!" The purple-haired inkling began, before bursting into another fit of laughter.

As they left the cafe and made their way towards the Square, Jet continued to tease David about the incident.

"Pearl. Of all the people, Pearl. Like c'mon dude, how low are your expectations?"

"This is coming from the same person who had a crush on Callie." Ari muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but at least Callie was cute!"

"Y'know what?" David snapped, pointing his Sploosh O' Matic at Jet. "You need to shut up."

"Sorry dude, it's just that the thought of someone liking _Pearl_ is so funny." He then began cracking up.

 _Crap, I shouldn't have done that…_ Hailey thought to herself, as Jet continued to laugh. She did feel kind of guilty for the whole event.

"David, I-" Hailey began.

"You shut up too, Hailey! I don't want to talk with any of you right now!" David snapped. He then turned and sprinted out of the hotel, his Sploosh dangling in his left hand.

0000000000

Eventually, the remaining three squad members made their way to the Square. It was a bit more crowded than usual, especially for a Monday. All the chairs outside were full of inklings talking or browsing on their SquidPhones. Those who didn't have a place to sit sat on the paved walkway near the lobbies.

"Why is it crowded today?" Hailey asked, confused. It usually wasn't this crowded unless there was a Splatfest announcement.

"I don't know." Ari shrugged. "Is there another Splatfest occurring?"

"Unlikely because Vampires vs. Werewolves happened last week." Hailey responded. "Oh well, let's just wait until the newscast comes on."

The four found a table that had just been left empty and put down their stuff. Then they waited for the newscast to come on. Eventually, it did. The billboard turned on, and the Off The Hook screen came on.

"Finally!" Jet heaved impatiently. "I wanna go improve my S rank!"

"Oh you'll improve it alright." David muttered under his breath.

"David!" Hailey exclaimed, noticing her partner. "Listen, I'm really sorry-"

"Ya'll know what time it is!" Pearl shouted energetically from the screen, interrupting Hailey's words. She sat up from her chair and smiled at the camera.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you _live_ from Inkopolis Square!" Marina smiled, beginning their announcements.

"I'm bored already." Jet sighed looking down at his SquidPhone.

"Ooh! This new Splat Roller just went down 100 coins!" he exclaimed a second later.

"Mm." Hailey responded, scrolling through her apps.

The news dragged on for what seemed like hours, even though they weren't really paying attention. They looked up occasionally whenever Pearl started an argument or when Marina back sassed Pearl's statement. But otherwise, it was pretty boring.

The squad was about to leave and go closer to the lobbies until something came to their attention.

"Now, ready for the big news, Marina?" Pearl asked. She seemed more giddy than usual.

"It can't be a Splatfest." Hailey shook her head. "Pearl isn't usually _this_ excited about a Splatfest."

"Wha, huh? What news?" Marina asked nervously, looking down. "The Splatfest?"

"No silly! You know what I'm talking about!" Pearl laughed.

"I really don't." Marina admitted shyly.

"Y'know, the Off the Hook…"

"I still don't." Marina blushed. "Help me out, please."

Pearl face-palmed. "The concert!"

"Oh! Right! The Off the Hook Premiere!" Marina shouted eagerly, now suddenly remembering. The inklings watching the news chuckled at her slip-up. She pressed a button, and a poster showing Pearl and Marina's shadows stood on the projector behind the two pop stars. The

"That's right!" Pearl nodded. "Next weekend, we're hosting an Off the Hook premiere concert right here in Inkopolis Square. We haven't done one since the time we introduced ourselves, and even then it was only one song!"

"What?" David asked. "What the hell?"

Marina smiled and pressed another button, showing an image of Pearl and Marina singing through microphones.

"We'll be performing our 4 hit songs! Color Pulse, Acid Hues, Muck Warfare, and Ebb and Flow!" she continued, suddenly remembering everything.

"Yep!" Pearl nodded, happy Marina finally remembered.

"And then we'll perform a final showdown-" Marina began, about to press another button.

Pearl's eyes widened. She jumped up from her chair and quickly grabbed the Octoling's hand, refraining her from touching the button.

"Shh! Not yet, Marina! That's a surprise!" Pearl shouted nervously, shaking her head.

"Oh, right!" Marina muttered, blushing again. She pressed another button, showing an image of fancy looking pink and green tickets. "And tickets are being sold both at the Inkopolis Plaza area and online!" She pressed _another_ button, and a picture of glittery golden tickets came up on the projector.

Pearl smiled. "Oh yes, we'll be selling 875 V.I.P tickets! They cost 4 times as much as normal tickets, but it's 100% worth it. Trust me! You'll get special privileges, passes, and maybe even a chance to have a conversation with us in person! And-"

"But back to the normal tickets…" Marina interrupted.

"Ooh, will they sign our autographs?!" A green-haired inkling girl asked excitedly.

As soon as she said that, Marina pressed another button, showing a drawing of Pearl and Marina signing autographs and snapping photos with fans.

"Autographs and pictures will be available after the concert!" Pearl announced, bobbing her head up and down eagerly. "So, if you want a journal, a piece of clothing, or even an album signed, we'll do it! We'll also volunteer to take photos with fans if they want!"

"Awesome!" Ari smiled. "I'd love to snap a photo with Marina!" She was the only one who seemed to not be perplexed by the entire situation.

Marina stretched and pressed another button, causing the projector to turn off.

"And that's all the time we've got!" Pearl exclaimed, noticing the time on the clock.

"Until next time!" she smiled, hopping out of her chair while Marina pushed the machine out of the way.

"Don't get cooked, stay Off the Hook!" The two pop stars exclaimed, making their pose.

The billboard faded to black, and then the lobby opened.

Immediately, the chatter began as inklings carrying many different weapons headed over to their lobbies. A few were engaging in normal talk, but most seemed to be talking about the premiere.

"Well, we should be heading in with them, don't ya think?" Jet asked, who had almost fallen asleep.

"Yeah." David answered, looking at his Sploosh. "Besides," he got up, nearly knocking over his chair. "What's the point of coming here if you're not gonna play?"

"But what about the premiere? It sounds interesting." Hailey asked.

"That? Oh, we'll go. But for now, let's focus on getting our ranks up." Jet answered, starting toward the lobby.

 **So, that's the first chapter! I'll update the 2** **nd** **one soon! My plan is to update 1-2 chapters a week.  
**

 **I wouldn't mind if you reviewed the story either. It'd be nice!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I'm back! I was going to upload this chapter yesterday, but errands happened and I wasn't able to. Sorry about that. I don't have school tomorrow, so I might get out another chapter then. Without further ado, here's Chapter 2!**

 _Note: I don't own anything besides my inkling characters. Everything else belongs to Nintendo._

* * *

 **Chapter 2:**

Hailey jumped out of her hiding spot and killed the enemy player with her shot. They screamed as the shot hit them in the back. A second later, the only thing that remained was a puddle of teal ink.

"Finally. A kill." Hailey panted, wiping the teal ink off her forehead and her shorts.

Her face was sweaty and hot, and she was having a hard time focusing. Her breaths were short and ragged, and her legs were cramped. The enemy team was _good._ It had been ages since she came across people like that. She had always faced against hard teams and lost to them, but she had never faced a challenge that huge. It was a miracle she even managed to kill one of the enemies.

"Hailey, heads up!" Ari shouted, pointing her E-Liter 4k right at the sky.

Hailey turned around, and nearly screamed as a green Inkstorm Cloud formed right above her head. She tried to jump to spawn, but was unable to for some reason. Her legs just refused to cooperate.

 _Move, dammit!_ She screamed inside her head, but not even her brain seemed to be functioning.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Jet shouted, and began swimming toward the enemy player who had spawned the cloud. In one swift move, Jet splatted them with his Dualies and was rewarded with a two bursts of teal ink.

"FWEET!"

Judd blew his whistle, signaling the end of the battle. Hailey breathed a sigh of relief as the cloud disappeared.

The two teams joined together and looked up nervously, waiting to see who would win. The two cats, Judd and Lil' Judd, held their flags behind their backs, calculating the results. The two teams held their breaths as the eerie silence went on. Finally, Lil' Judd lifted up his flag, knocking Judd to the ground. The enemy team had won.

"Dammit, we lost…" Ari muttered sadly. She looked toward the enemy team, who was hi-fiving each other.

"By 10%? Are you kidding me?" Jet shouted angrily, slamming his brand new Dualies against the ground.

Hailey picked herself from the ground and grabbed her Luna Blaster, staring at it sadly.

She had done horribly that match, especially at the start. She only had two kills, and never got to activate her special. The low turf number didn't bother her-Luna blasters were notorious for that-, but everything else did. Especially the inkling girl with the Octobrush. She was way too good. And no, it was not because of how overpowered her weapon was.

The previous 15 or so matches went splendidly, even though they had good competitors. What happened?

For the first time since she had given up her Soda Slosher, Hailey considered a weapon change. They were really fancy Splattershots, Brushes, and Splat Rollers in Sheldon's shop, and she was a level 35. Maybe she should buy one?

 _No, Luna Blaster forever. That's what I swore._ She held up the blaster and flicked a speck of dry ink from the top. _Right?_

Someone put a hand on her shoulder, interrupting her thoughts. She spun around. It was one of the enemy teammates.

"You okay?" he asked. He had green hair and blue eyes. He was carrying a Rapid Blaster. He looked about Jet's age.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hailey sighed, shrugging his hand off. "Just overworked, I guess. You guys were pretty good."

He chuckled. "Thanks. We've been training a lot."

Hailey nodded and looked down. The inkling boy began to walk away. After a while though, he stopped and turned to Hailey again.

"Hey."

Hailey looked up again. "What is it?"

"Good game, huh?"

Hailey nodded slowly. "You won fair and square. Normally I'd say it's rigged, but...you're clearly better."

She waited for him to agree and go, but instead he continued to speak.

"Well, I can tell you were struggling too much. Tell you what, if you want extra training, you could always stop by our place at 6pm on Fridays."

"Really?" Hailey's face lit up. "You'd do that?"

"Yeah, we're welcome to newbies and beginners." the inkling boy smiled.

Hailey froze. She looked at him in confusion.

"W-what? Newbies?"

"Yeah, you're obviously one. Right?" he smiled

Hailey scowled and folded her arms. "I am _not_ a newbie or a beginner."

"I see." he nodded, not believing her.

Hailey groaned in frustration. "You want proof? I've been here since the fourth Splatfest back when Callie and Marie were the idols."

"That's not the best proof I've heard…" he shrugged.

"I'm not a newbie!" Hailey screamed. "I've been in many tournaments _and_ have won 85% of them! I'm a decent Splat Charger player and a Carbon Roller Master! I'm level 35 Rank A+ in all my modes! And back in 2015 I was a Level 50 Rank S+ Rainmaker champion with my Soda Slosher! I'm part of one of the strongest squads out there, _and_ I'm-"

She ran out of air and caught her breath, panting heavily. She had never been this mad before. Nor did she ever reveal all that information like that in one breath.

The green-haired inkling boy, meanwhile, had moved at least a foot back. He clearly wasn't expecting that from her.

"Okay, jeez! You didn't have to scream in my face!" he exclaimed, wiping his face.

"But you do believe me now, right?" Hailey snapped.  
"Yeah."

"Good." Hailey turned to leave.

"But why are you using a Luna Blaster?" he asked.

"Because I like it!" Hailey sputtered, her face red from embarrassment. She ran toward him, prepared to shoot him dead in the middle of that field. He simply shoved her to the ground.

"Don't do that. It's not allowed. Besides, what would the others think?"

Hailey looked around. They were the only ones on the stage. No one else would come onto the stage for at least another ten minutes.

"Hello?" the inkling boy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Leave me alone." Hailey grumbled.

Well, I could tell you this. If you wanna improve, I suggest...y'know...changing your weapon?" he shrugged.

"I'm not taking advice from _you_." Hailey spat, and then got up to leave. "You're a piece of sh-"

"Actually, my name is Drew, but 'piece of shit' works well, too." he smiled again.

Hailey rolled her eyes. "Nice. Now how about you leave me alone?"

"How about you-"

Hailey's face turned red. "How about you stop judging people by what weapon they use!" she then stormed off.

"Oh don't worry, hun! I won't!"

* * *

"You okay, Hailey?" David asked nervously. They were sitting outside the lobby to have a rest before continuing their battles. "You seem pissed off."

"Yeah, I'm just a bit…" she shook her head.

"Bit what? Shaken up?" Ari asked, setting down her E-Liter 4k.

"And why'd you leave the lobby like five minutes after us? Did you fight in another battle by yourself?" David asked.

"Well, there was this guy I met after the round. He was kind of a dick." Hailey muttered.

"What did he say?" Ari asked.

"Well, it wasn't too bad now that I think about it, but he called me a newbie and I got kinda pissed off."

Jet laughed. "That's it? Jeez Hailey, you need to calm yourself. You've become super hot-headed lately."

Hailey sighed. "I guess…"

She turned to look at David, who seemed focused on something near Crusty Sean's area.

"What is it, David?" Hailey asked. "What's wrong?"

"Did anyone else see that?" he asked nervously. "That inkling girl, she had silver hair."

"What?" the rest of the squad turned over to look at David's direction. There were two inkling girls engaging in conversation. One had red hair and the other had a dark shade of blue.

"I don't see silver. You going blind?" Jet asked.

"No…" David shook his head. "I swear I saw her with silver hair."

"Silver hair? C'mon David, no inkling has that hair." Ari frowned. "Even back in Inkopolis Plaza, the color hackers had white and black hair."

"Nah, he's just blind." Hailey giggled, causing David to turn away angrily.

"Hailey, I'm not blind." David scowled. "I saw that silver hair; I _saw_ it-"

"Maybe that's why he likes Pearl. He's gone blind." Jet teased, interrupting David's sentence.

"Alright, let's stop teasing him." Ari snapped, pushing David back. He had a loathing look in his eyes, and his right arm was twitching violently.

Hailey backed up slowly and quickly grabbed her SquidPhone. Jet, however, didn't take the hint.

"C'mon now, it's so funny how that gremlin is actually liked that way. I mean, it'd make a lot of sense if he like the Octogirl, but Pearl? Why-"

"Jet! Stop!" Ari nearly screamed, startling the rest. She rarely came close to screaming, no matter how harsh her tones were.

"Fine…" Jet muttered, spinning one of his Dualies.

Hailey looked up from her SquidPhone and sighed, adjusting her Squid Hairclip. "I think I should just head home."

"But it's only 2 pm!" David exclaimed. Hailey _never_ quit early. She was always the one who complained when they went home to go to sleep.

"I'm just not feeling it today." she sighed. "But I'll be more active tomorrow, I promise."

"I don't know, Hailey." David began. "I just…" he trailed off when she stared at him, suddenly at a loss for words.

"Hailey, does this have to do with this Drew guy you met?" Jet asked angrily, reaching into his backpack to pull out his Dualies. "It is, isn't it? Where is the guy?"

"No, it's-" Hailey began to lie.

The lobby suddenly opened, and Drew walked out, talking to a pink-haired inkling girl who was wearing tinted shades. He said something with and made a weird gesture, which caused the girl to laugh.

"I'll see you guys later." Hailey muttered in an irritated tone. And with that, she was gone.

The other three members sat silently, trying to figure out why Hailey left. Eventually, Drew noticed the three and walked over with the pink-haired inkling girl clutching his arm.

"Hey, didn't I fight you guys earlier today?" he asked, smiling brightly.

"No, you didn't. You fought our clones." Ari muttered sarcastically, reaching for her backpack. She remembered this guy. He was constantly teasing her during the match.

"Jeez, what's up with the negative attitude? Did you lose too many matches?"

The pink-haired inkling girl laughed. Her laugh was bubbly and high-pitched. It would sound adorable in any other situation, but now it was just plain irritating.

"Drew, come one now, don't be mean! Just because they lost doesn't mean you have to rub it in!" she spoke through laughs. Her voice was almost as high-pitched and bubbly as her laugh.

"Stay out of this, Kathy…" Drew spoke firmly, shaking his head.

She laughed again, further irritating the three inklings sitting down.

"Do you have to be here? And what do you want?" David frowned.

"What? We can't stay?" Kathy laughed. "This isn't your area, y'know. We can stay here if we want-"

"Look," Jet snapped, folding his arms, "you either tell us what you want or get lost. We're not in the mood for irritating bullshit or anything similar."

Kathy blushed in embarrassment and put her hands to her mouth. She _knew_ he was talking either about her laugh or her voice. Drew pulled out his RapidBlaster and aimed it at Jet's chest. "That was rude. Apologize to her."

"Make me." Jet snapped, standing up. He twirled his Dualies.

Drew shot out a blob of green ink. It went off aim and barely missed Ari, who nearly screamed.

Jet's face darkened. He stormed over to Drew and grabbed his shirt, pressing one of the Dualies against his neck. "Did you just try to hurt my sister? Did you?"

"No. But I wouldn't have cared if I did."

Jet shoved Drew to the ground. He turned to Ari, expecting her to tell him to stop. Instead, she smirked and pointed to Drew.

Kathy stood completely frozen, her face full of fear. She looked on the verge of tears. It was surprising no one else in the Square was examining what was going on.

Jet laughed. He aimed both Dualies at Drew, who now paled.

"Apologize to Ari, and you'll live."

"We can just respawn." Drew shrugged, laughing at his own joke. "Besides, just because it's your sister doesn't mean-"

"Stop!" Kathy shrieked. "Stop it right now!"

 _Now_ everybody in the Square was paying attention. Even Judd quickly woke up from his nap to see what was going on.

"Stop the fighting!" Kathy cried again. "Just please stop it! Drew, just apologize and make him apologize to you. Simple! Does that all have to involve death and fighting?!"

The two inkling boys stared at each other, then at Kathy, then back at each other. Drew got up the floor and nodded to Jet.

"I'm sorry for hurting your sister. Well, accidentally almost killing her I should say…"

"Good. Now please leave us alone-"

"Hey!" Kathy snapped. "Now you have to apologize to me. I'm his sister, y'know."

"Yep." Drew nodded.

"Wait, sister? I thought she was your-" David caught himself. "Never mind."

The two inklings froze. Kathy's face went crimson. Drew released Jet as Kathy walked over to him.

"Did you just assume we were a couple?" Kathy asked softly.

"Y-yes." David muttered.

The two slowly took out their weapons. David braced for impact. He then heard a chuckle. He looked up and watched as the two siblings put their weapons away. Then, they burst into laughter.

"Us? A couple! Gross! Kathy is _way_ out of my league!" Drew wheezed, falling to his knees.

"Yeah, why would I date a total asshole like Drew? He's not even that attractive! Come on!" Kathy laughed.

Jet and Ari looked at each other awkwardly. Even they seemed to think of each other better than those two did of each other.

As the two caught their breath, David turned toward Drew.

"Seriously though, what do you want here? We've wasted too much time here with you, and we've attracted attention."

"Just stopping by to greet you, and I didn't see a problem with it…" Kathy shrugged. She then glared at Jet. "Until _someone_ decided to be rude. And my Octobrush is getting too heavy, so…why not stop for a rest?"

"You didn't have to do it over here…" Ari muttered under her breath.

"Hey, doesn't another girl hang out with you guys? Yellow hair, turquoise eyes, really cute but also annoyingly feisty? The newbie girl with the Blaster?" Drew asked.

"You mean Hailey? She left. She usually doesn't do that though." Jet shrugged. He was surprisingly quiet.

"And she's not a newbie." David frowned. Drew ignored him.

"Oh. She's probably still pissed at me. Well if you see her, tell her that she's still a cutie despite being a newbie. Come on, Kathy. Let's get a bite to eat at Crusty Sean's place." He then walked away.

"Hey that rhymed!" Kathy giggled, before skipping after Drew.

"Wait, what about the apology?" Ari called after the two.

"Forget about it! We're cool!" Drew yelled back.

There was a long pause before one of the three squad members finally spoke up.

"I can see why Hailey doesn't like that dude." Jet sighed.

"His sister isn't as bad. But that laugh…." Ari shook her head.

"It's cute, but not in a situation like this." David shrugged.

Another silence.

"Do you think we should stop at Hailey's place after matches and talk to her about this guy?" David suggested.

"Sure." Ari shrugged.

"Yeah." Jet nodded.

"But it's not really gonna be the same without Hailey." David sighed.

"Well, how about we go separately for a change?" Jet suggested.

"Wha-?" Ari began, but Jet cut her off.

"I mean think about it. We haven't gone separately as individuals since the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest." He suddenly cringed, remembering the news reports of how Callie was hypnotized and made evil. "That's more than a year! And to be honest, we get really sick of each other by the end of the day."

"That's true. But are you sure about this?" Ari asked.

"C'mon sis, when's the last time you went through a whole match without alerting Hailey about a surprise special attack?"

"Eight months…" she muttered under her breath. She always kept track of everything.

"And David." he smiled. "When was the last time you haven't been saved by your girlfriend's blaster because a sniper tried hitting you?"

"A long time." he sighed. "And she's not-"

"Yeah yeah. Now let's try this! Please?" Jet asked.

"I'm not the best on my own, y'know…" David muttered.

"Oh, so we've been carrying you to S+ the entire time?" Jet asked suspiciously, cocking his head to the side.

"What? No!"

"That's what I thought. Now please, Ari. Just this once?"

Ari sighed. "Fine."

* * *

"What'cha up to, Marina?" Pearl asked, walking into the studio room.

"I'm just finalizing plans for the premiere." Marina replied, crossing something out in a black marker. "I've got my vocals and dance routines done, but there's a few last minute things I've got to do."

"Have you talked to Callie and Marie?"

"Yep. They're coming for sure. They've been practicing a lot. More than us, even." Marina nodded. "Kinda feel bad for them, since Callie is still somewhat recovering."

"Was Callie sick?"

"Huh?" Marina looked up and shook her head. "She was never sick. She probably became weak from the withdrawal of the hypnotizing she received when she was kidnapped."

"How do you know all this?" Pearl asked suspiciously.

Marina pointed to her hair. "I'm an Octoling, remember? I know this sort of stuff. We learned all about mind controlling with music. I thought it was a joke at first to be honest."

"Yeah, but..." Pearl shook her head. "Never mind. When's our break? Aren't you hungry?"

"In half an hour. And no, I'm not. And don't you have some raps to record?" Marina asked, crossing out something else in a black marker.

"Did 'em all." Pearl beamed. "And I'm proud, too."

"What about your vocals?"

"Done."

"Editing?"

"That's _your_ job."

"Food? Drinks? Decorations?"

"I can't do that stuff until the plans are finali-"

Marina shoved a stack of papers into Pearl's arms. "There. Now go talk to the chefs about the food. And contact Callie and Marie about the mash up. We need to organize some things."

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "You okay, Marina?"

"Yeah. I'm just kinda pissed. These directors want me doing everything. From the main vocals to the dancing and…" she shook her head.

"Well, it's obvious they're biased." Pearl shrugged, clutching the papers. "Besides, I get left alone to do my own things, and it's awesome. And no, you're not doing the main vocals. We all agreed to share an equal part."

"Lucky you…" Marina muttered. "And I tried to tell the directors that, but…" She then picked up one last paper and thought to herself.

"Y'know, I actually am a little hungry. When break arrives, how about we grab a bite to eat?"

"Ooh! Let's go to Crusty Sean's place!" Pearl exclaimed excitedly.

"W-why? There's no protection and security there! We'll get mobbed!" Marina panicked, remembering the last incident and how the police had to come.

"Don't worry!" Pearl smirked, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a huge megaphone that was practically the size of her head. "I've got a plan."

"How did you fit that-" Marina began, but the inkling was gone before she could finish.

* * *

She walked into the shop nervously. Her mind was telling her to run, but her feet kept moving further and further into the shop. Before she knew it, she was right in front of Sheldon, who looked up and smiled.

"Hello! What weapon are you looking for?" he asked brightly.

Hailey looked around at the weapons. Splattershots, Rollers, Brushes, Splatlings, Nozzlenoses, Dualies; they were all there. Her uncertainty slowly faded and she smiled. This was right. Why hadn't she done this ages ago?

"I'm... looking for a weapon somewhat like this." Hailey reached into her backpack and pulled out her Luna Blaster.

Sheldon nodded. "I have plenty of blasters in my collection. Which one would you like?"

Hailey shook her head. "No, not another blaster. Something similar to it. The blaster itself."

Sheldon frowned. " Huh? Well, we have Nozzlenoses, and…." he shook his head. "How about you look around and see which weapon you'd like?"

Hailey nodded and surveyed the weapons, running her hands over the Dualies and Brushes in his collection.

 _I'm not into brushes, nor am I into Dualies. Hm, a Splat Brella? No…_ she thought to herself.

She paused at the Splattershot Pros and noticed a pink one hanging at the side. She pointed at it curiously.

"What weapon is this?" she asked.

"Oh, that's the Berry Splattershot Pro! It's my newest edition and-"

"No no, I think I know all about it already!" Hailey lied. She was not in the mood for Sheldon's long descriptions _again_.

"Oh, well...are you interested?" Sheldon asked. "Or would you like to test it first? If it's not your type, I've got my Forge Splattershot Pro and my normal Splattershot Pro too." he pointed to the black and blue copies hanging farther away from the Berry.

Hailey shook her head and reached into her pocket. "How much for this weapon?"

Sheldon raised an eyebrow. "You're not gonna test it first?"

She shook her head. "I know what I'm doing. This is what I'm looking for. How much does it cost?"

* * *

"The plans have been finalized." a voice came from the darkness. The only light was coming from a single computer system." By tomorrow, we should create adistraction big enough to set them all off."

"Tomorrow? Are you sure it won't take more time?" came a second voice. It was more high pitched and slightly younger than the first voice.

"Well, I'm not sure. Ever since Valerie demoted us to Compound #2, we've kinda lost confidence and track of everything." the first voice sighed.

"Oh, don't remind me…" the second voice sighed.

"This is probably one of our best plans yet. If it goes well, and we manage to get enough support, then I think we have a chance of moving to the highest compound."

"W-what?! You mean-"

"Yep, Compound 0.2, for the most intelligent and dangerous Octolings out there. They were the ones who came up with the plan to free Octavio and take Callie. The Zapfish part was just for fun, I think."

"So, if we set one of these monsters loose into Inkopolis, we'll create a distraction good enough to invade?"

"Exactly."

"What about the Zapfish?"

"Don't worry. We were able to create a copy that works just as well as the original. C'mon Stella, you should know this by now."

"Um, I have one question. About the things we're gonna let loose." Stella asked.

"What is it?"

"Um, who are we gonna test it on? The coding for the monsters. Marie? Pearl? Marina? Judd? Crusty-"

"We're going to test it one someone random. That way, it'll be harder to catch."

"Wha?-"

"This type of monster is a lot smarter than you think, Stella. It doesn't remain one forever. It can change its appearance to be back to its original state whenever it needs to. If it's a normal inkling, no one will bat an eye. If it's someone important, like those people you just mentioned, people will put two and two together and our ultimate plan fails."

"We don't have a backup plan?"

"No. I spent 3 years programming and organizing all these damn plans, you really think there's gonna be a backup plan on something huge like this? If we fail, we're screwed. Big time."

"So, Erin?"

"What is it now, Stella?"

"Isn't this a risk to our race, then? What if we have another Great Turf War?"

Erin sighed and turned off the computer system, brushing the green hair from her face. "I don't know. I'm not sure whether everyone will be involved. Tomorrow, we'll go to Daphnne and see what-"

"Daphnne?" Stella shrieked, flipping of a nearby light switch. "Are you insane?! She's one of the cruelest bitches out there! And even if she accepts, she'll take all the credit and be proclaimed a hero if it works!"

"Calm down Stella." Erin sighed, frowning at the younger blue-haired Octoling. "Besides, I don't care about being a hero or not getting credit just as long as it works."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"I told Eva, Sushie, Sapphire, Logan, Jacc, and Hershey."

"Hershey?"

"Stephanie. She's called Hershey now."

"Oh, ok? Gee, I don't know, Erin. What if-"

"Please, no more 'what ifs'! You're either in with the rest of our gang, or you can go back to bed and wake up early tomorrow morning to repeat training you

completed a year ago. It's your choice, hun. It's you're choice."

Erin flicked off the light and walked down the hall towards the dormitory areas.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Stella." she called out, unaware how she was leaving the younger Octoling confused and unsure.

* * *

Hailey sighed to herself as she walked home from Sheldon's place, the Berry Splattershot Pro clutched in her hands. Was she actually doing this? Had she actually done this? Why did she do this? It seemed wrong now. When she had walked into that shop, it felt right. But now, it felt like the stupidest mistake she had ever made.

She wasn't used to holding a weapon like the Splattershot Pro. It was a lot heavier than the Luna Blaster and it felt colder, despite being new and warm. She shook her head and reached into her backpack to grab the Luna Blaster when she remembered why she bought the Berry in the first place. Reluctantly, she dropped her hands down and continued to clutch her weapon.  
For an evening in Inkopolis, it surely was warm. Normally, it was cold and cloudy, but today it was warm and the sunset shown clearly over the huge buildings on the farther end of the city.

Hailey smiled, it surely was a beautiful sunset. It was a shame that the clouds wouldn't let her glance at it everyday. It was certainly a moment she missed having.

She sat herself on a nearby bench and watched the sun set. It wasn't the same because of the towers blocking her way, but it was still beautiful. When the last rays were beginning to disappear, she got up and walked home again. She could see her complex just a few hundred feet ahead, and she noticed three inklings standing at the entrance.

"Wait a minute…" Hailey squinted her eyes through the darkness and noticed Jet's thin reflection under the flickering streetlight above him.

"Hey! Jet! Ari! David!" What are you guys up t-"

She suddenly squealed and clutched her forehead. It began to throb painfully. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to cry. When she opened her eyes again, she noticed something paranormal. Blue squares began floating all around her while white strings spiraled around them. She tried to swat them away, but they just kept spinning. Hailey screamed. Was she going insane?  
Pretty soon, she couldn't see Inkopolis at all. All she could see were millions of blue squares with faint white strings spiraling around her. She glanced at the strings. She saw 0s and 1s.

She looked at the blue Squares. They looked like squashed combinations of letters and numbers and dashes and-what was going on? Was this-was she _dying_?

She screamed, and suddenly found herself lying on her back. She couldn't see what was going on anymore. She could only feel what was around her. She could also hear a...voice. But it sounded like it was in another language. She screamed again and clutched her Berry Splattershot Pro, which she noticed was nothing but a clump of blue squares. She shrieked so loud that the admins above could hear her and threw it against the ground. She curled up in a ball and cried. She was done for.

"Hailey!"

She blinked. The images faded. David was standing over her, concern on his face. Okay, it was more than concern. It was absolute panic and terror. There were beads of sweat falling down his face.

"We almost called an ambulance. Are you alright? You just kinda...fainted and had a fit."

"Yeah." Hailey breathed softly and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She blinked the tears away and grabbed her Berry Splattershot Pro from the ground. She stood up and headed toward the complex, David following her.

"What happened?" he asked. He glanced at her new weapon in confusion and his eyes widened. "Did you-"

"I'll tell you later…" she whispered. "Once we get to my apartment, I'll make dinner. Then, you'll explain why you're here."

"But what about you? What happened to you?" David asked worriedly. "You looked like you were having a seizure!"

"Like I said, I'll tell you later." Hailey muttered, starting toward Jet and Ari.

"Hailey, I'm worried about you." David admitted. "You've been acting strange today, and I don't like it."

Hailey stopped and turned to him, her face slightly redder than before. "I know you are worried. And I know you don't like it. And I'll help fix that once we get to my apartment."

She then turned back around and walked toward Ari, who surprisingly embraced her.

"We saw what happened. Are you okay? Are you sick?" she babbled on, pushing a lock of hair out of Hailey's eye.

"Ari, I'm fine." Hailey nodded. "Seriously. Can we just get inside?"

"But we're worried about you…" Jet replied, placing his hand on Hailey's shoulder. Even he seemed a bit scared. "And your weapon. Why'd you change it?"

Hailey finally stopped resisting the urge to blush. "You guys are honestly really sweet. Thank you for your concern. But _please_ , can we go inside?"  
Ari sighed. "Alright."

"But, why didn't you come to me, Ari? Jet?" Hailey asked confused.

Jet waited until Ari and David were out of reach, then he whispered to her.

"We were going to, but David said he wanted to do it on his own. He said it so firmly and angrily that it actually scared us. So we let him go toward you."

"Really?" she asked, intrigued. Then she shook her head. "Never mind. Let's just get inside. David and Ari are already at the elevators by now."

* * *

"What? Already? You set off the test?" a male voice whispered from the inside of Dormitory #1.

"Well, _someone_ did. And I think it's working. We can set off the plan then." Erin nodded.

"Tomorrow?" it was another male voice, only much older than the first one.

"No, this weekend. There's an event going on and they'll least expect it. Besides, we have to get Daphnne's support first and test 3 more victims."

The others groaned. Erin could only manage a small smile.

"I know you hate it, but it's the only way to confirm that it'll most likely work."

"What about Stella?" a voice asked, sounding even younger than the person she was mentioning.

"I don't know, Sushie. I guess she's kinda scared? Honestly, I am too."

"Will we test these other victims tomorrow?" Sushie asked.

"Yes. Then we'll ask Daphnne for support. And that's final."

"Why tomorrow?"

"Maybe because it's 10:00pm at night? Techy Octolings and enemies have to sleep too, you know!"

"I'm sorry. I thought-"

"It's fine. Now let's just go to sleep. We've got some big plans tomorrow."

 **Done! Thanks for reading! This chapter took about 2 hours to write... :/**

 **I'll try to publish Chapter 3 sometime tomorrow, but I can't make any promises because school is really demanding. Next week is more likely.**

 **Anyway, that's all. Review the story if you'd like!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Back again with another chapter! I don't really have much to say other than, "Enjoy!" Sorry this took much longer to release.**

 **It was originally** **going to be 2 short chapters, but I combined it into one long one because I thought it'd be better. Also, school's been difficult.**

 _Note: I don't own anything besides my Splatoon characters. Everything else belongs to Nintendo._

* * *

 **Chapter 3:**

"I'll make dinner." Hailey began, sitting up from her couch. "We've been lying around for too long."

Ari paused the movie shown on the TV and dimmed the screen.

"True." she sighed. "What should we do?"

"Like I said, I'll make dinner. Then I'll discuss what happened and then-"

"I'll make dinner. You relax." Ari stated firmly.

"You don't even know how to use my stove!" Hailey exclaimed.

"Who said I'm gonna use the stove?" Ari shrugged.

Hailey tried to protest but it was futile. All she could do was worry about her kitchen blowing up as Ari walked into it and closed the door behind her.

Hailey then turned to David. "Now what brings you guys here? Why were you outside my complex in the first place?"

"No." David shook his head. "Not as important as what happened to you."

Hailey sighed. "Well, I guess I could tell what I saw."

She launched into a description about the sudden throbbing pain in her forehead, and how she began seeing blue squares and white stringy wisps.

She mentioned how she must've been hypnotizing and assumed she was dying because she felt the ground but couldn't see anything. She even talked about the faint voice and how that caused her to scream and how she came back to her senses when David screamed her name.

The one thing she didn't mention was the numbers and dashes and letters and other symbols that made up the things she saw.

When she finished, there was a long silence. Then, Jet shifted uneasily on the couch.

"Jeez, maybe we should contact a doctor?"

"I don't know…" Hailey sighed. "I really don't want to. It seems like something I want to keep between us. But then again, it could be a sign of something terribly wrong with me. I don't know. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." David spoke firmly. "Listen, you've been with us to the point where we see you as a sister. As one of us. If you die…" he swallowed. "Do you know how guilty we'd be? Oh, we thought you were a goner when you began screaming. Ari started whimpering. Not even Jet has seen her like that often, and he's known her since her birth."

"I don't know…" Hailey started again, but Jet interrupted.

"Tomorrow you and Ari will stay back in your apartment. David and I will go out to the Square to represent our team. We'll bring you back whatever we win. If it happens again, we're calling a doctor and that's final."

"Why are the girls staying behind?" Ari spoke from the kitchen doorway, her arms folded over a huge stew pot.

"I knew you were going to use the stove!" Hailey exclaimed, pointing a finger at her.

"Well," Ari smiled. "I had to lie."

"I was suspicious anyway-"

"So, what's for dinner?" Jet interrupted hungrily. He held his stomach and licked his lips.

"A homemade shrimp cod stew. I brought it with me in my backpack and just heated it up on the stove."

"How has it not gone bad?!" Jet exclaimed.

Ari shrugged.

"Uh, do we even eat shrimp?" Hailey asked.

"Some of us do. But oh well, if one of us dies, we'll know it's deadly." she shrugged again.

Despite the atmosphere being heavy, the four of them laughed. It felt good to laugh. It loosened up everything and helped calm their nerves.

"You need help dishing out?" Jet asked, standing up walking over to his sister.

"Yes please, this pot is so _heavy_." Ari sighed. She and Jet walked into the kitchen and shut the door behind them.

Once the two siblings had left, Hailey sighed in exasperation and heaved herself up on her couch.

"I hate this." she sighed angrily. "I'm fine; I swear."

"You know we're just looking out for you." David nodded. "We're just concerned about you."

"But I feel like I'm being bossed around. It's no fun." she sighed.

"Well, sometimes you need to be bossed around. And I'm glad when you are to be honest."

Hailey glared at him and smacked him over the head. David winced but still managed to laugh anyways.

"It's not funny." Hailey whined.

"Oh?" David asked.

"No, it's not. I want to be left alone and do my own thing. And today has just been a bad day in general. I want to sleep and forget it ever happened."

"At least you don't have to make dinner?" David shrugged, trying to make the best out of it.

"Yeah, but…" she reconsidered the situation and smiled a little. "You're right. Besides, I'm so hungry. I didn't eat lunch and barely touched my muffin at breakfast."

"Of course you are hungry; your appetite is bigger than the entire city of Inkopolis." David joked.

"Nice joke. And my appetite isn't that huge." Hailey responded.

"Oh, really? Remember that one time we went to that restaurant? You ate two appetizers and two entrees, but somehow you were hungry enough for dessert."

"Oh come on, everything there was small!" Hailey whined again.

"Oh really?" David asked. "I don't think that huge lobster you ate was small."

Hailey stuck her tongue out and stared down at her socks, which caused David to laugh again. He then turned to look outside, which was now pitch black. The city, however, was the opposite. Lights from the buildings and from the pale moonlight gave off some sort of glow that was just very pleasing to see. He always liked views of the city from so high above. Since he lived in a small house, he didn't get to see things like that often.

 _So that's why Hailey chose one of the highest floors..._ David thought to himself. _It's really interesting; I should come up to higher areas more often._

Hailey looked up and noticed David staring. She chuckled a little bit to herself.

"Hey, David, do you like sunsets? And views of the night sky?"

"What?" David asked, clearly surprised by that question. "What made you assume that?"

"Well, you seemed intrigued by the outside view in my living room window."

David shook his head. "I'm not too interested."

"Are you su-"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes, really!"

"Okay…"

David sighed angrily. "Why don't you believe me?"

Hailey giggled a little bit, which made David raise an eyebrow. She never giggled like that, she would normally just laugh. He shook it aside and put his hands on his hips.

"Tell me. Why aren't you believing me?"

"You lie all the time. It's obvious."

"Really now?" David frowned.

"David, do you even look at yourself? It's super obvious when you're lying and when you're not! I'm sorry, but you need to do a much better job of hiding it." she smirked.

"As if you do a better job."

"Well, I do. And you can't prove it if you don't know."

"What about the silver inkling hair I saw earlier?"

"That's probably just a problem with your senses. I think you need the doctor more than I do."

David scowled.

The kitchen door swung open and Ari walked out angrily, her arms holding four bowls of stew. Jet followed her, laughing like he was having the time of his life.

"...That must've been at least half of the stew!" he wheezed. "I can't believe you spilled it!"

"Spilled it! What?" Hailey panicked, sitting up.

"Calm down, neat freak; it was in the sink. We washed it all away." Ari snapped. She glared menacingly at Jet who still continued to laugh.

"Well, do we still have enough stew for the four of us?" David asked.

"Ari pre-made enough stew to feed the entire population of Asia, so yes."

Ari scowled and hit Jet over the head, who stopped laughing and winced angrily.

"Are we going to eat or not?" she scowled again at her other two squad members. "After dealing with this pain in the ass, I don't feel like cooking anymore."

"You literally just boiled it on a stove…" Jet sneered.

"That's it!" Ari yelled and shoved the bowls into Hailey's arms. Then she tackled her brother to the ground and started punching him.

"Ari! Stop!" David shrieked, running over to pull her off. Hailey stood behind silently, digging into one of the bowls of stew. When David finally managed to pull Ari off, Hailey was already halfway finished because of how hungry she was.

Ari panted heavily and tried to claw at David's arms, which were gripped tight around her neck. Despite being fragile most of the time, he knew how to hold someone down. Eventually, Ari realized it was futile and lowered her hands. Hailey put her bowl down and walked over to Jet, who looked terrorized.

"Nice job...helping...me…" Jet panted. He wasn't injured, but his left cheek was red and his eyes were rimmed with tears.

"No problem." Hailey shrugged.

"You...bitch…" Jet muttered and stood up. Hailey simply shrugged.

When Ari was finally calm, the remaining three grabbed their bowls without a word. They then sat down at different parts of the couch and began eating.

For fifteen minutes, there was nothing but silence. Finally, Jet looked up at his sister and adjusted the goggles on top of his head.

"Sorry sis." he mumbled. "I was kind of a jerk."

"Oh really? I'd say 'jerk' is a bit of an understatement." Ari scowled yet again. But underneath that scowl, Jet could tell she was trying too hard not to smile. She always loved it when Jet apologized to her. It made her feel like she finally had some justice for once.

"Um, Jet? What were you saying about tomorrow's plans?" Hailey asked, sipping a can of soda she had grabbed from the fridge.

"I was saying that you would relax while David and I went out for matches. Around 5 to 5:30ish, we'd come back to your apartment and give half of whatever we earned."

"Why are only the girls staying behind?" Ari asked again, finishing her stew.

"Because unless you and stay behind, which obviously isn't happening since _Hailey's_ the one who's acting weird, it's gonna be awkward. I mean, think about it.

I'm the strongest person so I have to go. David has to go too in order to improve his stance."

"Not true!" David exclaimed, but Jet kept on talking.

"Besides, if David and Hailey stay in this apartment all day, we have no idea what's going to happen! And since you're a girl, you'll be able to understand Hailey better, right?"

Hailey and David made quick eye contact and then looked away again.

"Oh…" Ari muttered. "Right."

"So, you and Hailey are staying behind and that's final. If you want to argue with me, go ahead! Nothing's gonna change!"

"Alright. I'll stay with Hailey." Ari sighed. She took a sip of her water. "But if you guys screw up big time, I'm hitting you over the head with my E-liter. And you have to buy me an Off The Hook premiere VIP ticket."

"Deal." Jet smirked.

( AN: Time does pass between line breaks. Some have more time passings than others, and quite a few have no time passings at all. Just wanted to clear that up. Thanks.)

* * *

"Are you sure you're well enough to go to rehearsal tomorrow?" Marie asked nervously. "I don't want you fainting onstage or something like that. You want some more soup?"

"I told you, Marie. I'm fine. And no, I don't need any more soup. I could go for some crab-cakes right now." Callie answered.

"It's kinda late to hit JellyFish Cafe right now. But I promise you'll have all the crab-cakes you want at the premiere."

"And chocolate pudding?"

Marie sighed. "Yes, that too."

"Can we please just hit JellyFish Cafe and grab a muffin?"

"No."

"Can we go to Squid's Eatery and grab some lobster?"

"No!"

"Can we-"

"Callie, no! We've gone over this already! You're lucky enough that you can have popcorn! Besides, it's late!"

Callie smiled at the thought of the buttery snack and then frowned. "Why do I have to wait until Saturday to have my crab-cakes?"

"Because the doctor said that you shouldn't be eating things like crab-cakes and pudding for at least a week. He said that last Saturday. And by the time the premier arrives, it'll be a week."

Callie pouted. "Aw. It's so far away..."

"You can wait 3 months for a movie and a release of your favorite outfit and video game, but not 5 days for some _crab-cakes?"_

"They're so delicious, though! I really want one…" Callie whined, imagining eating as many as she could. Maybe she'd sneak out the house and grab some tomorrow.

"I'll make it up to you." Marie nodded. "Tomorrow, after rehearsal, we'll go to the mall and get that outfit and video game stuff you've been whining about for years. But only for a little bit, otherwise-"  
"Yeah, I know." Callie muttered. "Seriously, I'm fine, Marie! You don't have to worry!"

Marie sighed and placed down her umbrella. She turned to look outside the window in Callie's room, admiring the stars shining down over the brightened buildings.

"That's what you said when we brought you back. And then you fell ill a week later. So ill, in fact, we had to take you to the hospital. You should've seen Pearl; she looked like she was going to die. She was really worried about you. So was I. So was the whole city of Inkopolis, in fact."

"I remember all that…" Callie whispered weakly, closing her eyes. "But it's alright...I got better…"

"So I have a right to be worried. It took a week just to get you well enough to leave the hospital and three days to get you well enough to go outside. I know you don't like this, but I don't want you getting hurt again. You're a lot more vulnerable when you're sick. Got that?"

There was no response.

"Right?"

Still no response.

"Don't ignore me, Callie."

She finally got a response. But it was a snore. Marie turned around to find her cousin fast asleep on her bed. Marie chuckled to herself, picked up her umbrella and walked out the room.

"Goodnight, Callie." she whispered. She then flicked off the light and then closed the door behind her.

She walked down the hall and down the stairs into the kitchen, where Agent 4 stood scrubbing leftover dishes from the dinner they had an hour ago. She looked at Marie and gave a weak smile. She looked like she was going to collapse of exhaustion.

"Hey, Marie."

"Hi, Four."

"Is that my new nickname now?" she chuckled, placing a washed dish inside the dishwasher.

"Well, calling you 'Agent 4' gets annoying after a while, so…"

Agent 4 chuckled to herself. "You are so lazy."

"I never said it was because I didn't feel like it, I just said it was because it was annoying and repetitive." Marie frowned.

"Sure." Agent 4 chuckled again. She reached for another dish and accidentally dropped it back into the sink. Due to how fragile the dish she picked up was, it smashed into pieces instantly.

"Oh my god!" she gasped. She quickly reached inside to grab the broken pieces. "I'm so sorry, Marie. I'll buy you a new-"

"It's okay. That dish was cheap garbage anyway. It's my fault; I should've warned you how fragile it was. I shouldn't have made you work around all day. I should've let you go participate in matches."

Agent 4 frowned and reached for the tap to turn it off.

"What are you talking about?" she asked suspiciously, swaying lightly.

"I've been thinking about letting you go."

"What?"

"You're working a part-time job over at Flow's place, Sheldon's place, and you're spending time helping us. That's a bit too much, don't you think? Callie's also getting better, and I'm sorry to say this, but we don't need you as much…"

Agent 4 nearly gasped in shock. She quickly burst into please despite how exhausted she was.

"But I like caring for you and Callie! And I'm not overworked at all!" she exclaimed. She tried to walk over to Marie, but toppled and fell to the ground.

"See what I mean?" Marie sighed. "Look at yourself! You can't even walk! You haven't gotten _any_ good sleep this week and you know it!"

Agent 4 tried to help herself up. She seemed to be having trouble, though and just further proved Marie's point. When she finally hoisted herself onto her feet, she shook her head angrily.

"I like being known as Agent 4! I like helping you and Callie! I don't wanna go back to just being a normal inkling in Inkopolis!"

Marie sighed and held her umbrella.

"I know you've enjoyed these past 3 months helping me, but Callie's back and is recovering and we just don't need you anymore. I'm sorry, Four, but I don't want to keep you from your normal schedule. You need to go back and get on that Turf. You haven't been in 3 weeks. And I know that working two shifts in shops earn you only 60% of what you get in Turf."

Agent 4 sighed to herself. "I don't...I want to stay…please?"

"No. You have to go." Marie spoke firmly. "You can stay until the date of the premiere, then you have to leave. No exceptions."

Agent 4 nodded sadly. She stumbled forward and picked up her jacket from the kitchen chair.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Marie. Tell Callie that I wish her goodnight." she sighed.

"Will do, Four." Marie nodded, and watched as her agent stumbled out the kitchen and to the front door. A moment later, she heard a doorknob turn, the door open, and then close again.

Marie sighed and sat down at the kitchen chair. She looked at one of the portraits hanging on the wall. It was her, Callie, and Agent 4 doing the "stay fresh' pose. The older portrait of her and Callie doing it with Agent 3 two years ago was hanging on the wall as well not too far away.

It always hurt to let her agents go. Callie almost cried when Agent 3 left. But she had to. It was a rule she and Callie promised.

She sighed and placed her hand on her chin, thinking to herself.

"I don't know about this really, Callie's not going to be happy. She really likes hanging out with Four. Even more than me. But, Four is pretty stressed, so this is for the best. But, is it really? And should I really let her outside at this time alone?"

She sighed and looked into the sink. The dish pieces were still in there, and the smaller ones were lying at the bottom of the drain.

She quickly ran out the front door and surveyed the streets. She then spotted Agent 4, who was leaning against a house somewhat far away. She looked like she would topple over any moment as she struggled to regain balance.

"Hey! Four!" Marie called. The agent looked up tiredly. She waved to Marie.

"What is it?" she called weakly.

"Come back inside!" Marie called. "You're too tired to walk home alone!"

* * *

Stella turned to face the time on her clock. By now, Erin would be asleep. She had to act her plan now otherwise it would be too late.

She climbed out of her bed and slowly crept out of her dormitory. Her roommates wouldn't wake up unless there was food or danger. She looked around one last time and then closed the door behind her.

She walked down the hallway; passing dormitories 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...it seemed to be going on forever. All the lights were off besides the Emergency Lights, which flickered constantly. Stella looked ahead and behind her to check for any witnesses. Her anxiety grew the more she walked; would this hallway ever end?

Finally, she noticed a light up ahead. It was the light above the elevator and the Emergency Stairs that led out of the compound.

Stella walked into an elevator and pressed the first button. After a 30 second wait, she reached the first floor.

The first floor was completely still and empty. It was cold as well, but that was because someone had left the entrance door wide open again. The only light besides the elevator and the stairs came from the office that was stationed far into the corner diagonal of the elevator.

Quietly but quickly, Stella inched her way over to the office, wondering whether or not this was the best idea or not. Before she knew it, however, she was right in front of the office. It was quiet besides the ringing of a telephone and constant footsteps.

"Hello?" Stella whispered, knocking on the door. She waited patiently, but nobody came. She was about to knock again when she heard footsteps get louder and the door swing open. A much older Octoling with white hair and seemingly red eyes stood in the doorway. She looked around and then peered down at her.

It was Ruth. She was one of the 3 main Octoling leaders and the oldest Octoling still leading the compounds.

"Who are you? And what are you doing up so late?" she asked suspiciously, folding her arms.

"I'm sorry, Ruth. But it's urgent." Stella sighed. "It's a plan-"

"Urgent? Sorry, but I can't listen to it." Ruth pointed to the clock. "It's late. Go. To. Bed."

"What? I came here in my pajamas and sweatshirt for-"

"Rules are rules. Come back first thing tomorrow morning and we'll discuss-"

"Do you not know what urgent means? Let me speak! It's very important!" Stella snapped. She was tired, cold, and angry. She was _not_ going to be turned away after all this secret planning.

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules. Go back to your dormitory and be here by 6:30am."

"I will not go until-"

"Do you want me to call the guards and escort you back to the dormitory?" Ruth threatened. "Because I will if I have to."

She began to close the door. "I'll be here by 6:15 am. If you come by 6:30, surely we can discuss-"

"Ruth?" A sly voice came from the doorway. An Octoling with long black hair and purple eyes poked her head out from behind Ruth. She noticed Stella and smirked slightly.

"You were the girl who came here?"

"Yes, ma'am." Stella sighed, wondering if this was really the best idea.

"Daphnne, it's late. Send the child to bed and-" Ruth began to scold.

"She said it was urgent, Ruth. If you care about the damn rules so much, go back into your office and organize final applications. I'm going to have a talk with this girl."

"But-" Ruth began, but then shook her head and walked away angrily. She, unfortunately, couldn't control her other leaders.

"Come into my office, hun." Daphnne called from her office a moment later. "I won't bite. Well, I won't bite right _now_."

"Um..." Stella looked down at the hallway behind her. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. She should go back to her dormitory and not do this at all?

"You came here for a reason, dumbass." Stella told herself. "Now get in that damn office and tell Daphnne what you're doing!" She then smacked herself across the face.

Somehow, miraculously, the slap she delivered woke her up and made her focus. She then walked into the office, ready to speak.

0000000000

"So tell me…" Daphnne smiled as Stella took a seat. "What exactly brings you here?"

"Well," Stella looked around uneasily. "It's something very huge that I'll need support of a leader in order to take care of."

"Go ahead; tell me. I'm listening." Daphnne nodded.

Stella looked down and shook her head. "You may not like it. It's about Inkopolis."

"I don't care. I'm still interested."

"Erin and I have been planning a way to sabotage Inkopolis for the past 3 years."

Daphnne sat up quickly, both shocked and suddenly eager. "What?"

"I'm not finished. We came up with the final plans just a few hours prior to my statement. What Erin doesn't know is that I want you to enhance the plan. Make it better. I know our plan is going to work, but maybe you could make it better?"

"Hold on; let me get this straight. You want to sabotage Inkopolis?"

"Mostly the Square. We plan to do it…" she shook her head. "We'll do it Saturday."

Daphnne shook her head. "I'm not sure about this, we've already tried conquering them. And we know how terrible that went…" she shook her head. "Besides, why are you now telling me this if you've been doing this for years! I could've helped you!"

"Because...I never thought about it really. Well, _we_ never really thought about it."

"We?"

"Erin and I. This is our plan."

"And how have you proved yourselves worthy of my support?"

"We're letting monsters loose into the Square. Secret monsters that look like normal beings but attack you whenever they want. This alone will make them feel uneasy, and with the big event on their minds, they won't see it coming. We'll steal and sabotage what we want, and then make it back underground."

"Do you have a backup plan?"

"Well, no…"

"Why do you want me to enhance the plan? Do you plan to get Ruth involved? And this the most important question. Have you tested the monsters?"

"Erin did. She let loose the coding that would manipulate them. It actually worked well. By tomorrow, we should have about 3 of those beasts up and running."

"Go on."

"I don't want Ruth to be involved. She won't enhance the plan at all."

"That's true."

"And finally, I trust you. I trust that you can make it better. We made the plan, but it's up to you now. What do you want to do?"

Daphnne leaned back in her chair. Then she rubbed her temples.

"Jeez, there isn't enough time. We've only got 4 days, you should've told me sooner."

"We were originally going to do it tomorrow."

"We can't just get up and attack. We need a plan. Have you organized out everything?"

"That's why I want you to enhance it. What can you do? I know you have the power to make this work in 4 days."

Daphnne froze, smirked, and sat up in her chair again.

"What do you have?"

"I have a file containing everything that we've done the past years. If I could maybe bring it tomorrow, I could help you?"

Daphnne nodded. "Does Erin know you're doing this?"

"Huh?"

"Why would Erin send you here so late? That seems stupid. Also, shouldn't she come down here herself?" Daphnne asked.

"I already mentioned that she doesn't know I want you to enhance the plan."

"So she doesn't even know you're here in the first place?"

It went quiet. So quiet, that you could almost hear a quiet footstep all the way from Inkopolis.

Stella's face turned red from embarrassment. She cleared her throat. "I never-"

"You're doing this behind her back, aren't you? And you trust me to take care of it while she hardly knows? That's not what partners do."

"I'm…" Stella looked down in guilt. She was right. She shouldn't have done that.

"But I like the way you think."

Stella looked up, confused. She blinked.

"What?"

"I like how you're doing this behind your partner's back. That's the kind of girl I've been looking for all my life. You'd be the perfect one to handle betrayal and throw off enemy plans. And since you're the 'nice girl', no one would suspect it. It's beautiful, really."

Daphnne smiled brightly. Stella sat there, partially shocked. Why was she enjoying this? Why was she enjoying the fact that she was doing this to one of her best friends?

"Tell you what, do you have any extra information for me to see?" Daphnne asked again.

Stella sighed. "There's another file in Erin's room. Even more secretive than the first file. She hides it in this location that...never mind. But I could bring it to you tomorrow."

"Excellent."

"But it's going to have to be early in the morning. Erin can't know I'm doing this; she'll kill me."

Stella curled up onto the chair. She had gone way too far. But she knew what she was doing. And Daphnne was believing her.

"I understand. But be here no later than 7:15. I'll take a look and make the 'enhancements' you've been wanting me to check out."

"Thank you." Stella nodded. She rose from her chair and was about to leave, when Daphnne extended her hand.

"We have a deal? You must support me on these plan changes no matter what. And since you have no backups, you can't make a loophole around me."

Stella nodded and cautiously reached toward Daphnne's hand. Daphnne grabbed it abruptly and shook it firmly. She then let Stella's hand go and pointed to the exit.

"You should go now."

Stella gulped and walked out of Daphnne's office. Ruth was standing at the doorway, her face showed that she was tired and irritant, but her posture made her look alert.

"Are you still here? Will you ever leave?" Ruth asked, yawning.

"Actually, I'll be going to bed now." Stella whispered; feeling quite tired herself.

"Alright, but please don't come late next time. Goodnight, dear. Be good." Ruth nodded, gently pushing her toward the entrance she came from.

"Goodnight, Ruth…" Stella whispered, and slowly shuffled out of the office and into the dark lobby room.

* * *

Marina woke up in a cold sweat. That dream; why was it so awful?

She turned to face the alarm clock. 2:30. It was too early to do anything. But she couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried. She seemed too scared.

Half an hour went by as Marina tossed and turned endlessly, trying to fall asleep. After her final failed attempt, she groaned in frustration and threw off the covers. She slipped on her bathrobe and trudged to the kitchen to make something to eat.

She went into the pantry and pulled out a Squid Pastry, which one of Pearl's favorite snacks. Marina loved eating them as well, but could only do it at night when Pearl was asleep. She also could only do it once in a while, or else Pearl would notice the supply diminishing.

As Marina thought about this, she checked around the corner one last time and then popped the pastry into the microwave.

As the pastry heated up, she grabbed a glass and filled it with milk. She then took the pastry out of the microwave and put the milk inside. She was hoping this would help her fall asleep or maybe even relax just a little.

When the whole meal was finished, she took a seat at the kitchen table and started eating. Slowly, she felt herself getting more and more tired until she could hardly finish the rest of her pastry. She quickly gathered it up in a napkin and hid it deep under garbage in the trashcan. She was about to quickly gobble down her glass of milk and go back to her room when…

"The hell, Marina?"

There she was. She was standing in the doorway, her eyes low and dark from sleep. She was holding the doorway to the kitchen with her left hand to balance herself. Her nightgown fluttered slightly because of the vents. Her hair drooped, but luckily it was too short to reach over her eyes or get to her shoulders.

"I thought someone broke into our house or something. But nope, it's just Marina. Why are you eating at 3 am? You had a huge dinner last night!"

"I…" Marina shook her head. "It's nothing. I'm just craving food."

"At three in the morning?"

"Y-yes."

Pearl raised an eyebrow but didn't question the situation anymore. "Alright then, get back to bed. We have rehearsal tomorrow and I do NOT want to have to wake you up again!"

"Yeah, I know, Pearlie." Marina sighed. She walked to her room and closed the door, climbing under the covers and squeezing her eyes shut.

It felt like ages, but eventually sleep came. She relaxed on her pillow and closed her eyes as random thoughts encompassed her…

0000000000

 _She was standing on top of the beautiful skyscraper, watching the sunset. The smaller one next to her held her hand and couldn't stop smiling._

" _It's beautiful isn't it?"  
_

 _She didn't say anything. The view mesmerized her. She had never been this high, nor had she seen the sun set over these beautiful buildings. She remembered when she lived underground, and the only times she'd see a sunset was if she snuck out of her home and watched it from her balcony._

" _I said it's beautiful, isn't it?"  
_

 _She nodded slowly. "Yeah."  
_

 _"See? I told you, Marina!" she laughed._

" _C-can we come up here again tomorrow?"_

" _What?"  
_

 _"I want to watch the sunset again tomorrow."  
_

 _The smaller one laughed. "I thought you were afraid of heights."  
_

 _"I am." she answered._

" _But why-"_

" _I don't like heights. But after seeing this, I...I don't think it'll bother me as much."_

 _The smaller one laughed again. "Alrighty then, let's head back inside before the directors start getting mad at me for no apparent reason."_

 _She nodded and bit her lip. "Right, let's go."_

" _Hold it!"  
_

 _That's when she saw her. Short red hair just like hers. Wearing nothing besides armor for the top and bottom, slick boots. Her shades blocked the purple eyes behind them, but she knew they still had little to no mercy in them. The weapon was aimed right at the smaller one's head._

" _Put your hands up! I've got backup in case you want to pick a fight."  
_

 _"What are you-" Marina began._

" _Shut up." the girl snapped. "And put your hands up. Any more denials and you get a bomb to the face."  
_

 _The two reluctantly put their hands up, sweat dripping down both of their faces._

" _Now, we're going to take you down and question you. Any objections?"_

" _Actually, yes." the smaller one nodded. Marina noticed the microphone slipping from her grip._

 _The girl frowned and aimed her weapon. "Speak then, you bitch. What do you want to say?"  
_

 _That's when Marina lost it._

" _Don't call her that!"  
_

 _She turned around and lunged at the girl, who yelped in surprise. The weight of the two brought them crashing to the ground.  
_

 _"Marin-" the smaller one tried to yell over the scuffling. "Don't! It's not going to benefit-"  
_

 _But she was too late. Marina punched and the fist drove deep into the girl's jaw. She nearly shouted and clutched her jaw._

 _She pushed Marina off, wincing angrily. Her jaw was turning slightly purple from the blow and her lip was bleeding._

" _That's it, you asked for it."_

 _It all happened in a blur._

 _The girl grabbed her weapon and aimed. Her grip slipped as she fired. The smaller one ran up and pushed Marina, signaling her to run. But she went too far forward and completely prevented the shot from hitting Marina. Instead, it hit the smaller one right in the forehead._

 _Marina's scream could be heard from miles away. She quickly ran toward Pearl, who was lying facedown on the ground._

" _Pearlie?" she gasped, shaking the smaller one. She didn't move._

" _Pearlie...no…" she whispered._

 _She lifted Pearl up. Purple ink was all over her forehead. Her eyes were blank and her mouth was open slightly, as if she had one last thing to say._

" _Pearl? Please, I know you're still here."_

 _Pearl's eyes darted slightly, but then slowly faded._

 _Then she disappeared, and the only remnant was her crown and a puddle of ink._

" _Pearl…" her voice cracked._

" _Hands up!" The Octoling had the weapon aimed right at Marina's face. "Bit foolish of your friend to do that. I would've gotten you anyway."_

" _You...did...that." Marina gasped. "You…"  
_

 _"Obviously. Now, I'll warn you one last time. Stand up."_

 _Marina sat up and looked her right in the face._

" _You'll pay for what you done."  
_

 _That's when the Octoling bashed her over the head with her weapon._

"Stop!" Marina shrieked, sitting up. She looked around. It was much brighter outside than a few hours ago, but it still looked a bit early to be out and about around the city.

"What was that dream?" Marina asked herself. It seemed too weird and confusing to her. But it was somewhat scary to her as well. She lost Pearl to an enemy, and probably woke up at the part where she died as well.

She rolled over and checked her clock: 6:45. By 7:15 she'd go take a shower.

She climbed out of bed and walked to the kitchen in her bathrobe to go make breakfast. No more sleeping for her, at least for today. Besides, they had rehearsal at 10:15. If she fell asleep again, she'd likely wake up at that exact time.

* * *

Agent 4 slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the infomercial that was playing on the TV. The next thing she came aware to was the smell of pancakes. The third thing she realized was that she had spent the night.

On the Squid Sisters' couch.

"What? So I wasn't dreaming…" Agent 4 muttered to herself, clutching her forehead.

That's when she noticed she was wrapped in multiple blankets, and her head was on a soft pillow. All of which were pink.

"Huh, I wonder who did this…" she thought to herself sarcastically.

The door behind the couch swung open, and Callie entered, carrying a bowl of tomatoes. When she saw Agent 4 awake, she quickly set down the bowl rushed over to greet her.

Callie's way of greeting her agents was hugging them for a long period of time and asking many questions.

"Finally! You're awake!" she exclaimed, squeezing her tightly. "How was the sleep? Uncomfortable? Would you want the bed next time? You hungry? I made pancakes. Do you like pancakes?"

"It was fine." Agent 4 wheezed, breaking free. "Great actually. I had a pretty good sleep. Sorry I kinda slept on your couch."

"Oh good, so the extra blankets must've worked." Callie nodded, "And it's okay. Marie explained everything so I'm not mad. Speaking of Marie, she and I made pancakes. You want some?"

Agent 4 nodded eagerly. The thought of pancakes reminded her that she was very hungry, and now giant piles of hot pancakes was all she could think about.

"One or two?" Callie asked, walking to the pantry to grab the syrup.

"Four."

"Damn, that's a lot!" Callie exclaimed. "They're pretty big pancakes, y'know?"

"I still want four."

"Okay…" Callie responded. "But if you end up in a food coma, I'm going to slap you once you wake up."

Agent 4 laughed at Callie's statement and walked to the kitchen. She sat down in one of the four wooden chairs and tried not to drool at the sight of the newly cooked pancakes in front of her.

"There ya go, Agent 4." Callie smiled, settling two pancakes in front of her. "And put on as much syrup as you want." she set the syrup bottle right next to it.

"But I wanted four." Agent 4 pouted. To be truthful though, the pancakes were pretty big. They were the size of the entire plate, which was also pretty huge.

"Yeah, but I don't want one of my fellow agents to end up in a food coma. Even if you do, I'll still slap you in the end."

"Can I have some more when I finish?" Agent 4 asked eagerly as Callie began preparing more.

"Yeah, if you somehow manage to eat them without gaining 15 pounds, then knock yourself out."

Agent 4 laughed again and pulled out the syrup, drenching her pancakes in the sticky liquid.

"I see you're a syrup person." Callie remarked.

"One hundred percent."

"Don't use all of it. Marie's a syrup fan as well."

"You?" Agent 4 asked, taking the first bite of the pancakes.

"Nah. And I'm more of a waffle person myself really. But since I'm craving whatever today, I don't mind having some pancakes."

"Is there a reason why they're the size of Inkopolis?" Agent 4 asked, taking another bite.

"Huh?"

"The pancakes." Agent Four swallowed and licked the remaining syrup around her mouth. "Why are they so damn huge?"

"I don't know. That's how Marie and I always make them. But they're not supposed to be that big; I must be adding too much of a certain ingredient."

"And speaking of Marie again…" Agent 4 took a huge bite, finishing off a good portion of the pancake. She swallowed and wiped the excess syrup with her sleeve. "Where is she?"

"She's practicing one final time before we go rehearse. You know, for the premiere. You're coming, right?" Callie asked eagerly.

Agent 4 nodded. "Yep. Bought a V.I.P ticket." She then remembered the conversation with Marie last night and looked down sadly.

Callie took a bite of her pancakes. "What is it?"

"It's about me...staying here."

Callie's smile faded. "Oh no…"

"Yep, after the premiere, I'm leaving."

"What? No! I like having you around here! You can't just go!"

"As Marie quoted, 'I know you've enjoyed these past 3 months helping me, but Callie's back and is recovering and we just don't need you anymore.' That's what she said."

"Just go back on the Turf!" Callie exclaimed. "And we still need you!"

"I can't do that."

"Do what?"

"Go back on the Turf."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I'm working two part-time shifts at the stores because, well, I kinda got banned."

"What?! What did you do?!" Callie gasped.

"It doesn't matter. I've been banned for god knows how long and the only way to earn a good sample of what I got in Turf is to work two shifts. Even that is getting me only 70% of what I usually earn…"

Callie sighed. "So, she's letting you go. Damn, I don't want you to leave. You're awesome."

Agent 4 took another huge bite of her pancakes. "You are too. Don't worry, I'll visit on the weekends if I can."

They heard footsteps from upstairs get louder and louder. Eventually, Marie came downstairs, holding a microphone and a file.

"Oh good, pancakes. And morning, Four." Marie nodded, sitting across from Callie. She took three pancakes and piled them on her plate.

"Don't take too many." Agent 4 whispered.

"Why?" Marie asked, confused.

"Because you'll end up in a food coma."

"Shh! Don't tell Marie!" Callie joked. Her reward was a pancake to the face. She looked up and began to steam when she noticed Marie's smirk.

"Oh it's on!" Callie yelled angrily, and threw a pancake into Marie's face. All Agent 4 could do was watch silently as the two cousins then threw pancakes at each other, only 35% of them actually hitting each other in the face.

 _What a waste of pancakes._ She thought to herself bitterly.

* * *

"Jesus, what happened?" Hailey whispered as she sat up. It was morning, and the entire couch was covered in popcorn. The TV was off, and her Berry Splattershot lay in a far away corner. Her soda had spilled on the counter, and an unattended bowl of stew sat on the dining table.

"What the-" Hailey sat up angrily and reached for the empty soda bottle. "Didn't even bother to clean up…"

"Oh good, you're awake."

Hailey dropped her bottle. "The hell? Ari? What are you doing inside-"

"If you recall, I'm supposed to be watching over you today." Ari frowned.

"Wha-"

"Yesterday? You don't remember anything that happened?"

Hailey placed her hand on her chin. "I remember the movie, and the popcorn fight, and you guys talking about Drew…"

"Do you remember the weird visions you saw yesterday?"

The word "visions" confused her. She didn't even seem to have a clue about it.

"What visions?" Hailey asked, clueless.

Ari face palmed. "This is the main reason why I'm here! Don't tell me you forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Hailey asked.

"I give up!" Ari shouted, throwing her hands in the air.

"Why are you so angry all of a sudden-"

"You don't remember the visions you saw?! The blue squares and white wisps? That's the main reason why I'm here!"

Hailey shook her head. "I'm sorry Ari, but I can't think."

"What do you mean you can't think? I came here at 5 am for nothing?! Were you faking the visions! Speak to me!"

I guess I don't have enough energy?"

"Not enough-"

Maybe breakfast will help."

Ari raised an eyebrow, and slowly softened. "Yeah, maybe." She looked outside at the rising sun. What do you want to eat?"

"Pancakes maybe? The batter and stuff is all on the farthest cupboard to the right."

Ari's face hardened, but she nodded slowly. "Okay, I'll make you pancakes."

Hailey titled her head to the side, glancing at Ari. Her face seemed to wobble slowly, and a single tear slowly slipped down her cheek.

"While you do that, I'm gonna take a shower and clean up this living room." Hailey sighed. She stood up and walked to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

"How doesn't she remember anything?" Ari thought to herself curiously as she reached for the pancake batter. "That's strange. And it's not like she's on a

hangover or anything. Maybe she really does need a doctor. I'll talk to Jet about it..."

She looked back and saw Hailey close the door. Ari looked down sadly.

"Hailey...I really am worried about you..." she glanced at the Berry Splattershot Pro in the corner of the vent and shook her head sadly. She walked over and slowly picked it up.

"Why'd you change your weapon? That's not like you. David's right. You've been changing. And it's not in a good way."

She glanced at the Berry Splattershot Pro again and threw it against the ground. It bounced lightly and landed still.

Not a scratch.

Ari huffed angrily and turned on the sink to prepare the pancakes.

"I'm calling right after this."

0000000000

Hailey turned on the sink and splashed water all over her face. She then grabbed a bar of soap and scrubbed as hard as she could.

When she finished, she looked in the mirror. Her eyes were still very bloodshot, and her face was still covered in popcorn bits and salt. She looked absolutely terrible.

"What the?-" Hailey dunked her face in the soapy water and scrubbed her face for another two minutes. She scrubbed and scrubbed until her face was aching.

As she scrubbed, she began to think about Ari. She had been acting weird ever since….what? What was the event? And why did it make Ari so mad since she was forgetting it?

"I still don't understand what I'm forgetting...it doesn't make sense." she mumbled, spitting some soap she accidentally got into her mouth.

"If it was serious, I would've remembered it. But Ari's reaction definitely means it's serious. But what the hell was it?"

She turned around to grab the towel behind her, when she heard a voice. It sounded older and mysterious. She could understand it, but it had some sort of strong accent to it. An accent like...Marina's.

She quickly shook her head, and tried to deny she was hearing things. Seconds later, however, she heard the voice again.

It sent chills down her spine, and she quickly ran to the door to open it. Only it wasn't a door.

It was a blue square.

That's when Hailey screamed. She remembered. She remembered it all. It all hit her so hard that it terrified her. She was angry; she was scared. She wanted to die; she wanted to live.

She gasped for air and screamed again. The voice became louder and louder until it was booming inside her ears.

"Do you want me to help you?" the voice asked.

"Get the hell out of my head!" Hailey screamed back.

"I can make you powerful…"

"No!"

"Do you want me to help you?"

"No! Just get out of my head! I just want everything to be normal again!"

"Do you-"

"Just get the fuck out of my head! I don't want to deal with this anymore! Just leave me alone! I will never submit to you!"

The voice finally faded.

But the blue square did not.

It began multiplying again and again. White wisps began spawning next to it.

The visions were back.

* * *

 **I'm craving pancakes now.**

 **I was going to make the chapter longer, but I thought it'd be best to end it here.**

 **Anyway, sorry for uploading it so late! Review if you'd like!**


	4. Chapter 4

**All right, this chapter is now out! Yay! I'm so sorry it took so long to release. So I made it extra long to make it up to you.**

 **But I'm going to take a short break after this, so don't expect any new chapters before November 4th. Sorry.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4:**

Hailey breathed heavily and tried to focus. The blue squares were hardly visible now, but she knew they were still there. They continued to fade until there was hardly anything left.

When the last square had completely disappeared, Hailey sighed to herself and curled up near the shower. These visions couldn't keep happening anymore. She had to find a way to stop them. If she didn't, then eventually they would drive her insane.

After the event, Hailey didn't feel like taking a shower. But she knew she had to, otherwise Ari would be suspicious.

Speaking of Ari, did she even hear Hailey when she was screaming? It was strange; she would at least be banging on the door by now.

Hailey forced herself to take a 10-minute shower. Then she walked to her closet and put on a T-shirt with Marie on it, black running pants, and grey sneakers.

When she finished, she brushed her hair slightly and then walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

"What took you so long?" Ari asked suspiciously as soon as she noticed her. "I already finished my breakfast by the time I even heard the shower water turn on!"

Hailey sighed and thrust her hands into her pockets.

"Well, speak!" Ari continued, sipping a cup of orange juice.

"Sorry, some things happened…" Hailey muttered.

"What things?" Ari asked, folding her arms.

Hailey sighed. She couldn't lie to Ari. She'd figure it out anyway.

"They came back, Ari."

Ari shifted uneasily. "What came back?"

"I saw them. The blue squares; the white wisps."

She swallowed and looked down.

"I don't know what's going on with me and I'm scared."

Ari froze. There was a minute of pure silence. Hailey was expecting Ari to cry but instead she burst into both anger and sadness.

"I knew it! I knew something was wrong with you! That's it! After breakfast we're going straight to the doctor! Forget about that 'call' I made like fifteen minutes ago! I'm calling Jet right now!"

"Ari, stop-" Hailey began nervously.

"Shush! Don't try to intervene! Quick! Eat your pancakes!" She then sat up from the table and marched to the guest room to look for her purse.

"Ari, wait!" Hailey called, but it was futile. If Ari had a final decision, especially in the case of serious events, there was no stopping her.

"I wasn't expecting you to react this way, Ari. What's up with you?" Hailey muttered to herself.

She stared at the pile of pancakes in front of her. They smelled like cinnamon, which always made her feel hungry. But at the same time, Hailey was desperate to talk to Ari and tell her everything was all right. Eventually, Hailey's appetite won the argument, and she sat down to enjoy 4 delicious-tasting pancakes.

Eventually, Ari came back. She seemed more frustrated and angry than ever before. Her face was red and her hands were clenched into fists.

"Fucking Jet, always out in battle and refusing to answer his calls. Doesn't he realize how crucial your health is?! Or your sanity?!" She turned to Hailey who was eating the pancakes and smiled a little. "I knew you couldn't resist the pancakes."

Hailey opened her mouth to say something, but decided to save it for later and shove more pancakes into her mouth.

Ari's smile slowly faded. "But we can't waste time. What if those visions come back again?"  
Hailey nodded and swallowed. "Right. Let's go right now."

Ari glanced at Hailey's plate, which was still half-full. "Uh-uh. Finish those pancakes. You need that energy. Don't want you fainting on the way to Inkopolis Square."

Hailey blinked in confusion and wiped some syrup off her mouth. "Inkopolis Square? I thought I was going to the doctor."

"Tomorrow's a better day. And we're going there to get Jet and David and bring their sorry asses back here."

"But David never did anything…" Hailey quickly looked down as Ari glared at her.

"He didn't answer my calls."

Hailey shook her head and folded her hands in her lap.

"What is it now?"

"Why didn't you hear me when I was screaming?"

" _What?_ You were screaming?!"

"Oh shit." Hailey muttered under her breath. She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I was. You didn't hear me?"

"There was no screaming from that bathroom. If there was, you'd be in the doctor's office getting checked by now. Speaking of which…"

"Ari." Hailey sighed. "You seem a bit…. I don't know...on edge?"

"And why would you assume that?"

"Ever since yesterday, you've just been angry and jumpy about pretty much everything involving me."

"Why I-" Ari began. Then she sighed. " I guess. I don't know why. Sometimes I question my own behavior as well."

"Maybe you're protective of me?" Hailey giggled.

"What?" Ari snapped. "Of course not! I'm not your older sister or mother!" she noticed Hailey's smirk and blushed slightly. "Okay, maybe. But that's not all."

"So what's the other reason?"

Ari shook her head. "It's nothing."  
"But you just said-"

"I said it's nothing. Can you please finish your pancakes please?" Ari scowled. "If not, I'll eat them myself."

"Ari, it's hardly been ten minutes."

"I'm done." Ari sighed. "I give up." She then walked into the guest room and slammed the door behind her.

Hailey cocked her head to the side and shook her head.

"What the hell is up with her?"

* * *

Two inkling girls walked up to the building behind Inkopolis Square. This was where Pearl and Marina practiced songs, filed work, did newscasts, and more.

The two inklings were each wearing long black jackets that were zipped up and purple boots. One had orange hair and blue eyes and the other had purple hair and green eyes.

They walked up to the front door, where a security guard stood with a Carbon Roller in his hand. He peered down at the two inklings suspiciously. He definitely did not recognize them.

"Name and/or job identification?" he asked.

"Uh, don't have any of those two." the orange-haired inkling shrugged.

The security guard frowned and raised his Carbon Roller.

"Then get out. No more rabid fans inside this building. If you try to interfere with me, I'll call the police."

"Wait, I thought _you_ were the po-" the purple-haired inkling girl began, but stopped when the orange-hair inkling girl nudged her with her elbow.

"Look, we have more proof other than name and job identification." the orange-haired inkling frowned.

"Like what?" the security guard asked, gripping his Carbon Roller even tighter.

The purple-haired inkling girl walked up to the security guard so that they were hardly a foot apart. Then she removed one of the green contacts from her eyes and slowly lifted up her hair.

The Carbon Roller clattered to the floor.

"My god…" the security guard gasped, his tinted shades sliding down to his nose. "You two are…"

"Yes." the orange-hair inkling frowned.

"I'm so sorry, girls. I honestly thought you were just some obnoxious rabid fans. Please forgive me."

"We would if you'd let us in." the purple-hair inkling nodded.

"Oh, right! Um…." he cleared his throat and resumed character.

"Pearl and Marina are waiting for you on Floor 6. If another guard gets suspicious and tries to intervene, then…"

"Yeah, we know." The orange-haired inkling nodded and turned to the purple-haired inkling girl. "Come on, let's go."

The security guard remained still as the two girls walked into the building. As soon as they were gone, he couldn't help but go giddy with excitement.

"I can't believe I just…. this is awesome! I actually got to see them!" He then frowned slightly. "I really hope they do forgive me though..."

As soon as the two girls entered the elevator, they walked straight to the elevator without even viewing the lobby. A few guards glanced at them suspiciously, but they didn't say anything.

After 3-minute wait, the two made it to the 5th floor. They walked down a long corridor to make their way over to Pearl and Marina's recording room.

Despite trying to not pay attention to the surroundings, the two couldn't help but notice that the 5th floor was much different from the first floor. The left wall was painted pink with diamond-like shapes drawn all over. A picture of Pearl hung in the middle of the wall. She was smiling brightly and striking a little pose of hers.

The right side of the wall was painted a greenish-turquoise. There were no decorations on the wall besides two white loops that ran from corner to corner. A picture of Marina hung in the middle of the wall. She was smiling, although it was a shy and nervous smile rather than a bright and energetic smile like Pearl's.

The roof had been designed to be painted just like newspaper articles and albums of Pearl and Marina. Some of them ran along the edges of the wall and a few even made it to the ground. At the end of the corridor was a wide door that was tainted slightly and a bowl full of lollipops. The purple-haired inkling reached for one, but the orange-haired inkling smacked her hand away. Now wasn't the time for sweets.

They slowly looked around to make sure there was nobody else. Other than the muffled conversation that came from the two pop stars behind the door, there was nothing. The purple-haired inkling sighed and then knocked on the door. A second later, Pearl opened it. She frowned slightly at the sight of the two girls.

"Look, we're busy right now. And how'd you two fans even get in here? Leave immediately, or I'll call security."

"We're not fans. We're here for the rehearsal." the orange-haired inkling laughed.

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "Um, what? Don't even try to fool me. It's not going to work."

"We're not fooling you, Pearl." The purple-haired inkling sighed and unzipped her jacket. Then she removed her green contacts.

"See?"

Pearl's eyes widened and then flashed with excitement. "Wait! It's you! Holy shit! I'm so sorry! Um, come on in!"

"Pearlie, what's going on?" Marina asked from behind.

"They're here!" Pearl practically screamed.

"Who? What's going on?"

"What do you mean 'who'? Callie and Marie!"

"Oh! They're here! Yes!" Marina exclaimed.

Pearl quickly rushed the two girls in and slammed the door behind them. Then she took off their wigs and removed Marie's contacts.

"Jeez, I really thought it was some fans that somehow snuck in here and wanted an autograph. Sorry. But why the disguises?"

"We would've been trampled to death if it weren't for them." Marie answered, throwing her black jacket to the ground. "We weren't in the mood to get mobbed by the screaming fans."

"Oh, I see. But how'd you get past the security guard?" Marina asked.

"Well, we kinda gave away our identity. But I doubt he'll tell. And he seemed really shocked to see us." Callie smiled.

"Yeah, Charles is a huge fan of you guys. It's kind of cute to be honest." Marina giggled. She then turned to Pearl who was squealing with delight. "And Pearl here..." she sighed and turned to Callie. "Just give the girl an autograph."

"Won't we be coming for rehearsal on Thursday and Friday too?" Callie asked, confused.

"Yeah, but if you get it to her now, she'll shut up."

"Hey!" Pearl snapped. Marina giggled.

"Oh, okay…" Callie nodded. She pulled out a pen from her pocket. "Where shall I sign?"

"On this #TeamCallie T-shirt!" -At the words "Team Callie", Marie winced a little.- "It's been my favorite T-shirt for as long as I can remember!" Pearl smiled eagerly. She pulled out a pink shirt from her pocket, unfolded it, and smoothed it out.

"So, a year?" Marina asked.

"Marinaaaaa! Not in front of Callie!" Pearl whined.

"Why, sure! I'll sign it! But I'll need a marker if it's gonna show." Callie reached into her pocket and pulled out a big black marker. She then took the shirt from Pearl and began signing her name.

"How did she-" Marina began, but Marie silenced her.

"Don't ask. Callie is one hell of a mystery."

"... Aaaaand Done! Here ya go, Pearlie!" Callie smiled, handing Pearl the shirt.

Pearl looked up at Callie with a look of pure joy and excitement. Then she finally screamed so loudly that the Octolings down below could hear her.

"I got my T-Shirt signed by Callie! Yes! And she called me 'Pearlie'! You heard it right, Marie? Right, Marina?! You heard it! This is awesome!"

"Pearl, calm-" Marina began.

"No! I will not calm down! The best person who ever existed just called me 'Pearlie'! Yes!" she screamed, and then ran into the recording room, still squealing.

An awkward silence filled the room. Then, Marina shook her head.

"I'm sorry." Marina sighed. "Pearl, she just…. she's a bit…."

"Nah, I understand. This happens all the time." Callie shrugged. "I was expecting her to faint."

"I think we should begin rehearsal…" Marie nodded, looking at her watch. "I gotta be out of here by 1pm."

"Oh, it won't take long!" Marina reassured her. "Now c'mon!" she grabbed both arms. "Let's see what we've got so far!"

"Finally…" Marie sighed as Marina dragged her to the recording room.

* * *

Stella opened her eyes. Her head ached slightly and her muscles were cramped. For a moment, she couldn't recall anything.

Then she remembered; the talk with Daphnne, the files she stole, and now she was going to have a talk early this morning.

Stella shoved her hands under the pillow. The folders were still there where she last stuffed them. She yawned slightly and looked around. Her roommates were somehow still asleep. Stella checked the time on the clock. 8:30.

"Oh no! I'm late!" Stella panicked. She threw on a sweatshirt and some pants, swallowed three mints to improve her breath, grabbed the folders, and rushed out the door.

Once Stella reached the office, she quickly pounded on the door. After a minute, no one arrived. She began to grow uneasy and knocked again.

No response.

Stella began to panic. Had Daphnne left?

She banged on the door even harder, then winced in pain due to the impact. Still nothing.

She pounded on the door even more furiously even as her knuckles began to ache. Time went by as she continued but no one answered.

"Quick! Open the door before Erin gets here! Open the damn door!" Stella shouted.

Nothing.

Minutes went by as Stella sat there, upset. Why had she messed this up so easily? She had the meeting, stole the files, and then ruined it all by oversleeping. She curled up in a ball and began thinking of what she'd tell Erin. She'd be awake by now, right? She'd probably be looking for the files, or talking to Stella's roommates about the files, or looking for Stella herself.

Loud footsteps coming near her interrupted her thoughts. She looked up. Ruth and Daphnne were walking toward the office and holding steaming mugs of coffee and chocolate pastries. As their words became clearer, Stella realized that they were arguing about compound regulations.

"No, Ruth. Perhaps you don't understand. Compound #3 is the weakest compound out there. We can't just keep it forever."

"What do you mean we 'just can't keep it forever'? It's our compound."

"All beginner Octolings go to Compound #2.5, Ruth. Compound #3 is for failures, traitors, and hostages, though we don't get any of those."

"It's still our compound, Daphnne. We can't get rid of it. It's too important to us."

"What the hell even goes on in that compound anyway?"

Ruth sighed in defeat. "I don't know."

Daphnne nodded. "Exactly. So, when we go to the meeting on-hey! Who are you? What are you doing there?"

Stella jumped up eagerly and ran towards her. "Daphnne! Oh god! I thought I-"

"Who the hell are you?" Daphnne frowned, studying her intently.

"You don't remember me?" Stella whispered sadly.

Daphnne leaned forward and then smiled. "Oh, right! You're the girl from last night. What are you doing here?"

"I brought the folder. The one I wanted you to take a look at."

"What's going on here?" Ruth asked suspiciously.

Daphnne turned to the older Octoling and shook her head. "It's nothing." She then turned to Stella. "What do you have to show me?"

Stella sighed and showed Daphnne a bright yellow folder with dozens of papers sticking out of it. Daphnne smiled and clapped her hands with delight.

"Excellent!"

Ruth raised an eyebrow. "What on earth is this about?"

"Nothing Ruth. Now, hun…" she turned to Stella. "Didn't you say you were going to bring two fold-"

"Daphnne, I demand to know what's going on. Don't keep secrets from me."

"Like I said, Ruth. Nothing to worry about." Daphnne nodded again, and eagerly hustled Stella into her office.

"Besides, you'll know eventually!" she called, and then closed the door behind her.

0000000000

"What have you got to show me?" Daphnne asked Stella as they sat down. "Is it any good?"

Stella nodded slowly and flipped open the folder. She then pushed it toward Daphnne, who snatched it eagerly.

"I'm sorry for my late arrival. Ruth insisted that I get breakfast with her." Daphnne began, flipping through the pages.

"Well, I overslept. So, it all works out I guess…"

"Mhm…" Daphnne answered, hardly paying attention. She was now studying the diagrams and designs that were in the folder.

"Very interesting…" she murmured after a while, studying the detailed drawings. "Very interesting indeed." She traced her fingers over the diagrams and writing and tapped her chin.

"Just like how I wanted it."

"What do you mean by that?" Stella asked curiously.

"I mean that these support my enhancements perfectly."

Stella's heart fluttered. "Really?! Thank you-"

"Don't thank me just yet. This is going to take time."

Stella licked her lips nervously. "What do you mean?"

"This is going to take a while to accomplish. We'll need at least another week."

"Week?!" Stella exclaimed. She cleared her throat as Daphnne glanced at her. "A week? Possibly there's-"

"My enhancements will take a while to carry out. By this Saturday, we'll be lucky to get 50% finished."

She took out a red pen and began tracing and circling some diagrams. "But, I must thank you. This has most of what I need."

 _Most?_ Stella wondered. She was about to question the statement but stopped as Daphnne pulled out another paper, glanced at it, and crumpled it up.

Stella quickly gasped and reached for it. "No! What are you doing?"

"It's an invalid paper. It would destroy the plan." Daphnne answered simply. She tossed the crumpled up in the waste bin behind Stella and glanced at her shocked expression.

"Why so upset and shocked? It's just a draft of a plan. Many get thrown out. And take a look at it yourself. It's not going to do anything but cause trouble. Really? Numerous Octoling spies in Inkopolis Square? Way too risky. We have four of them reporting to us daily. Well, we used to have five...until the other one suddenly lost signal with us two years ago. Who knows where she is now…probably dead..."

She shook her head and flipped through more papers.

"Can I have a look at these enhancements?" Stella asked timidly.

"No. Tomorrow we'll have a meeting and you'll hear them then. You're still a student."

She leaned back and studied Stella.

"Well, I could tell you _one_ of my enhancements."

Stella gulped and nodded slowly. "Yes?"

Daphnne flipped another paper over and then began to write over it in red marker.

"Say, you weren't planning to _take_ something were you?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Stella blinked. "Um...what do you mean? We always take things."

"Like…." Daphnne lifted up a paper, showing a drawing of an inkling.

Stella gasped. "You mean an inkling? No! We were just going to steal some stuff and then-"

"Well, take an inkling." she wrote the words in big bold letters.

"What?! Why?! It defeats the whole purpose of the plan!"

Daphnne sat up angrily and glared at her. Stella winced and reeled back.

"Do you not remember the deal we made, hun? And how you said the whole plan was up to me now?"

"Well-"

"Answer the damn question."

"I...I do remember it…"

"So, why would it defeat the whole purpose of the plan? Well, _my_ plan."

Stella winced and looked down. "We've never done that before. We've snuck into Inkopolis and stolen many things, but we've never kidnapped a witness. Besides, does sabotage to a city really require us to take-"

"We've? You and Erin did this alone?"

"No. Erin and I are part of a clan called-" she quickly shook her head. "Not important."

"Well, you decided to hand the plan over to me, so I'm in control now. And that's that. Right now you should be focusing on how you're going to tell your friends all of this…"

Stella began to argue but then just simply shrugged. "I guess. I'll get to work on that."

"Right. So, do you know about the premiere?"

"The what?"

"The premiere."

Stella began to get excited. "A premiere? Amazing! We haven't had one since-"

"No, Stella. Not for us."  
Stella's smile faded slowly. "Oh, you mean Inkopolis."

"Yes, so apparently the Off The Hook group is hosting a premiere this Saturday. At least 80% of the population will be there according to the stats. Perfect distraction. If I remove two of my enhancements, we'll be able to attack on that day. But if I do, I'll need your full cooperation for this. If not, we'll have to attack after the premiere. It'll be a lot more risky, however, because by then the monsters you released would have been roaming for about a week, making everyone more wary of everything."

"Is this the backup plan?"

"What? No! This is Plan B! I'm giving you a choice between Plan A or Plan B. There's no backup plan! You never gave me a backup plan to enhance in the first place!"

Stella sighed. "Oh, I'm sorry…."

"Whatever. So, if you plan to sabotage the entire square _during_ the premiere, there's gonna be a shit-ton of witnesses. We'll need to take out as many as possible. I actually recommend you choose Plan A. It's the perfect opportunity to get as many witnesses as possible. Or, 'take out' is what I call it."

"Take out?"

Daphnne rolled her eyes. "Aren't you a failed Compound #1.5 student? You should know what that means, hun. Just because you work in the technical agency doesn't mean you get a pass on all your other training, too..."

"Wait," Stella nearly gasped. "You know who I am?! You knew the whole time?!"

Daphnne laughed. "Of course I did! You're Erin's partner, Stella."

"Then why don't you ever call me that?! You act as if you don't know me!

"Because it's fun to tease, you look alike to many other students I've talked to, and we're alone in a close area. All I have to do is say 'hey' and I have your attention! Now, back to the subject."

She cleared her throat. "You should know what 'take out' means. It's a common phrase. Everyone in or from Compound #1.5 should at least have a good grasp of the phrase in general."

"Well, I don't." Stella snapped. "Might as well tell me now."

She was expecting Daphnne to tell her off for the rude tone, but she just raised an eyebrow.

"Alright then. It's basically a term used for getting rid of someone."

"So…'take out'... means to kill?!"

Daphnne smirked. "Take some, kill and/or attack. Why? You can't attack an inkling?" she began to reach for the telephone stationed in the corner of her desk. If so, I can just send you down to Compound #2.5 and have you build some thicker skin before continuing this conversation-"

"No! Don't!"

"That's what I thought." she nodded as she drew her hand away from the phone.

Stella breathed. She had to act this part of the plan now in order for Daphnne to cooperate.

"Okay...how about we take a celebrity?"

"Who? Marie? She isn't going to work. She can easily fight us. Callie was a failed attempt…." Daphnne tapped her chin, trying to think of others.

"Marina. Let's do Marina."

Daphnne flinched at the name. "What on earth do you want to do with her?"

"She's a celebrity."

"Yeah, so?"  
"Probably the biggest obstacle and most key part to our plan. Or, _your_ plan."

Daphnne snorted. "What's that Octo-traitor gonna do?"

"If we _do_ manage to lead the attack at the premiere, it'd make sense to take Marina. I mean think about it. She may be a traitor, but she's still an Octoling. She'll most likely know what's going on when we attack, which will make it harder to do anything. And besides, everyone will be so caught in alarm by her sudden disappearance that we can lead maybe a second one!"

Daphnne flinched again. "What makes you think we can take her out?"

"She's been softened by everything because unlike us, she has a heart for the enemies. And that's not allowed. Haven't you seen her? Heard the spy reports? She literally has an _inkling_ as her best friends! An enemy! Is one of! Her! Best! Friends! Do you know how humiliating that is?! Now the inklings probably pity us! That's not good! She should be in Compound #3 with the rest of the traitor scum don't you think? That is, if you decide to keep it. Besides, can she even fight? All she does is sing and play Turf. She doesn't know how to defend herself from a huge attack, does she? Do any of the inklings know?"

Daphnne sat there, completely stunned. She glanced at Stella as if she had just damned the entire Octo-Valley.

"I can't believe you'd say that…" she finally managed to get out. She leaned back and rubbed her temples.

Stella began to panic. "Wait, I didn't mean-"

"But that's probably both the best and worst part of the plan yet."

Stella sighed in relief then smiled brightly. It worked. "So, we'll do it?"

Daphnne smirked again. "Don't know. I'll see what I can do." she glanced at the clock. "Probably should leave now. Getting towards the end of breakfast." she then resumed looking at the diagrams in the folder. "And bring the other folder next time will you?"

Stella nodded, sat up to leave, and focused on Daphnne, who was still looking at the diagrams in the folder. Quietly, but quickly, Stella reached into the waste bin and pulled out the crumpled up paper. She slipped it into her pocket, walked out of the office, and shut the door quietly behind her. She then turned to look behind the water machine and picked up the second folder she had hidden.

"Don't worry, Marina. It was a lie…." Stella muttered. "I'm not going after you…"

She walked out of the office and towards her dormitory, unaware Ruth had heard her.

* * *

"I swear we had that match!" Jet yelled angrily. "We've lost all our matches by such small numbers! It sucks!"

"I guess you owe Ari a V.I.P ticket now." David chuckled.

"Yeah, whatever…." Jet frowned. "It's still early in the morning. We have enough time."

"It's 9:26."

"Still early. How many matches have we lost so far?"

"Ten..." David answered, wincing at the number.

"That's not bad!"

"Yes it is. And actually, it's fourteen if you include the Salmon Run failures two hours ago."

"No, they don't count. Our teammates were trash and those Flyfish were just...they're ten times more annoying when you're trying to swim away from three Maws. And all we have to do is win ten matches before 5:00pm! Easy!"

"You go ahead." David sighed. "I've pretty much given up at this point."

Jet raised his eyebrows. "You're quitting? We literally just started."

"No, we didn't. I'll come back in the afternoon." he glanced at his Sploosh. "Maybe it's time to update my weapon."

"Gee, you're acting like Hailey now."

"What? How?" David asked, confused.

"Have you not been paying attention? You don't want to play anymore, and you want to change a weapon you've stuck with for a very long time. What's next? You start seeing weird black squares and you have to stay home too? Speaking of Hailey, I wonder how she's doing. Hope Ari's treating her well."

"I'm not sick, Jet. I'm just annoyed. And why do you wonder about Hailey? She'll be just fine with Ari around." David wondered.

"Because Ari's very protective of Hailey. And when she's protective, she can get aggressive. Even to the person she's protecting."

"Really now?"

"Ari's aggressive in general. But when she's suddenly overprotective of someone, especially me, the aggressiveness doubles. She easily gets pissed off, and kinda just gives up on people a lot. She's trying to control it, but I doubt she'll control it when it comes to Hailey. She has quite a mouth."

"Says you." David muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Oh shut up. I'm not as bad as Hailey."

"Oh sure…" David answered sarcastically. "I totally believe you."

"Oh fuck."

"Language." David muttered, looking at him. "What is it?"

"9 missed calls from Ari."

David laughed. "So?"

"If the call amount goes over 5, she gets _really_ pissed. Probably on her way over here to kick my ass right now. I gotta quickly get in the lobby before she finds me."

"Ha. Sucks to be you." David laughed again.

"Seriously, shut up. And what about you?" Jet snarled.

"Huh?"

"Isn't there a chance that she called you, too?" he smirked.

David paled. "Oh. Right." He set down his backpack and reached into his left pocket to grab his SquidPhone. Instead of feeling the cold metal of his phone, he felt air. He paled even more and reached into his right pocket. Inside there was a chocolate wrapper, his wallet, and a receipt from a hat he bought an hour ago, but no phone.

"Oh no!" he panicked.

"What's up?" Jet asked, looking up from his phone. "Let me guess? 9 missed calls on your phone as well?"

"What? No! It's my SquidPhone! It's not in my pocket! I always put it there!"

"Oh. Is it in your backpack?" Jet asked.

David shook his head. "I never put it there. It's always in my pocket."

"Did you even check your backpack?"

"It's not in there, Jet! I must've taken it out when we were buying new hats at Flow's. Or maybe it when we got something to eat at Crusty Sean's."

He looked back at Jet who was texting at a fast speed.

"Seriously?"

"What?!"

"Help me out here, Jet. Do you know where my phone could be?! And why are you texting now?"

"I don't know where it could be…" Jet shrugged. "And I'm trying to plead with Ari. But she's not taking anything from me."

He looked behind David and noticed two inklings exit the lobby: a male and a female. The female pointed right at Jet, and the two started walking over to him and David. Jet immediately recognized them. It was Drew and Kathy.

Jet's eyes narrowed and he put his SquidPhone away. He then turned to David who was turning over his pockets again and again.

"It's obviously not in there."

"It might!" David shouted frantically.

Jet looked back. Kathy and Drew were still approaching him.

"How about you go over to Crusty Sean's place and start looking there? I'll go participate in more matches." Jet suggested. He wanted to deal with these two alone.

"Good idea." David nodded, and then sped off before Jet could tell him twice.

Jet smiled, and then waited until he was sure Drew and Kathy were within reach of his fire range. Then he spun around and aimed one of his Dualies at Drew's face and the other at Kathy's neck.

"I don't have time for you two. So back off." he snapped.

"Whoa! No need to get aggressive." Drew exclaimed, putting his hands up.

"What do you want with me? Come to piss me off once again? Because if you do, I swear I'll actually kill you and your sister this time."

"I see you still don't like us." Kathy huffed angrily.

"Ya think?"

"Just calm down and drop the Dualies. We're not here to cause any trouble right now." Drew stated calmly.

Jet relaxed slightly, but still kept his Dualies aimed at the two.

"I mean it. We just wanted to talk to you about a battle." Drew spoke again.

"What kind of battle?" Jet asked curiously, lowering his Dualies. Kathy let out a shaky breath and relaxed.

"Well, thank DNA for it. She came up with the idea. Basically, tomorrow, we'll have a battle. Our squad versus yours. Best out of five. Two will be turf matches, and the rest will be the ranked modes. What do you say?"

"What do we get out of it? And what do you get out of it?"

"Nothing. It just proves which squad is better."

"How is this supposed to stop me from hating you?" Jet asked.

"It's not. We just thought it'd be fun to challenge your squad." Kathy shrugged. She then smiled. "Unless you wanna be nice to us again."

Jet stared at her as she smiled. "Right…." he quickly shook his head. "Okay, fine. I accept your challenge. But does it have to be tomorrow? Hailey's in no condition to fight and I'm not sure she'll be tomorrow."

"The latest is Friday. Saturday is the premiere and DNA is leaving for vacation the day after so it won't work. Speaking of Hailey, does she still hate me or are we cool now?"

"She's…. I guess she still doesn't like you that much but still thinks you're okay. She was flattered by her remark though, when I told her you thought she was cute."

"Was she now?" Drew smiled.

"Yeah. She tried to hide it, but it was pretty obvious. She almost never gets told that."

"I don't know why. She really is cute." Drew shrugged. Kathy winced and looked down.

"Okay then, but that doesn't give you permission to flirt or mess with her…" Jet warned.

"Why does it bug you? You're not her brother."

"I'm the closest thing to it, so I'll act like it."

He then sighed and looked down. "Thanks. I'm glad you took a semi-mature approach."

"For what?" Drew asked.

"Instead of trying to piss me off, you did something decent. I'll give you credit for that."

"Oh, that…." Drew smirked. Before Jet could do anything or begin to get suspicious, Drew snatched his Dualies and ran away as fast as he could.

"What the? Get back here you bastard!" Jet called after Drew, chasing him. Kathy sighed to herself and looked after Jet and Drew.

"Why is my brother so stupid sometimes?"

0000000000

"So, you _haven't_ seen my phone anywhere?" David asked.

"Look kid, I don't watch for phones. I watch for customers. If I watched for phones, I'd be in that phone store near the Square.

"Do you at least have some sort of clue what might've happened to it?" David asked again.

"It must've gotten stolen or dropped. That's all I can think of." Crusty Sean answered.

David sighed. "Alright. But did you see anyone else in my area when I had my phone?"

"You assuming someone stole it?"

"No! Well, yes..."

"Only other customer before you was a girl. Dark blue hair and purple-ish eyes I think. But I don't know where she is now. She's an everyday customer and is a pretty good person. Probably wouldn't steal your phone."

"Uh huh…" David nodded. He began to walk away then turned back around.

"Wait…"

"What is it now, squiddo?" Crusty Sean asked.

"The name of that SquidPhone store you mentioned…"

"Yes?"

"Where is it and what's it called?"

"Oh! That place! Um…" he began to think to himself while David dug into his backpack for a pencil and paper.

"Ah, yes!" Crusty Sean nodded. "The store is called...um…. SquidPhone Central I think? I'm not too sure, I never really got a good glimpse of it."

"Where is it located?" David asked.

"Okay, so you leave Inkopolis Square and walk straight for about three blocks. Then you take a right and walk for about one block. It's the very last store on the right just before the intersection on Double Splat Road."

David scribbled the information down on his paper. "Will they give me a replacement phone if I tell them I lost my old one?"

"Uh, I don't know. Did you get your SquidPhone from there?"

"I got my SquidPhone on my twelfth birthday from my older sister so I don't know. I never asked her where she got it from."

"Well tell them your phone is lost, give them the info about you, and just see what they do from there. If they say 'no' and kick you out, I'll see if I can get one of my buddies to get you a good used phone."

"Really? Thanks, man!" David exclaimed happily.

"No problem, squiddo." He then leaned forward and placed his arms on the counter. "Now, you gonna buy something or what?"

David sighed and reached into his pocket for his wallet. "I'll take a drink."

David walked out of the Square and down the road toward the shop. He clutched his paper nervously as he walked, constantly checking both ways for other people or cars.

Even though he was on the sidewalk.

He could almost hear Ari's voice criticizing him for being so paranoid.

" _You're so worried about everything, David. No car is going to purposely crash into you on the sidewalk. You gotta think logically sometimes..."_

David chuckled a little at the thought of it. As he approached the next intersection that led to Inkopolis Tower, he noticed something strange. There was a huge line that snaked around the block and a huge cluster of people clumped around the entrance.

David tapped on one of the inkling's shoulder nearest him, who whirled around angrily. "What do you want?" she snapped.

David backed away slowly. "I...uh...just wanted to know what's going on?"

"Oh." she relaxed. "We're buying tickets for the Off the Hook premiere. The guy up front noted that there's only 50 VIP tickets left. So, naturally, everybody went berserk."

"Is the plaza still open?"

"Not anymore." she shook her head. "Kind of a shame, really. I liked this place. You getting a ticket from here?"

David shook his head. "Nah, I'll get one online. I'm just heading to an area behind the block."

He then surveyed the crowd and tapped his chin. "Is there a way around this crowd?"

The girl shook her head. "You could go through, but you'll get shoved around too much. Try cutting through the stores in the back of the plaza. It's a much better route anyway."

"Are you sure?" David asked nervously. "Aren't those stores abandoned?"

"Yeah, I take that route all the time. No one else is there, I swear. If you're that uneasy, keep your head down and move quickly."

"Ok. Thanks."

"It's nothing, really." she smiled then turned back around. David was about to ask some more questions, but decided to just trust the girl. She seemed to know what she was doing. He walked away from the crowd and took the intersection that went around Inkopolis Plaza.

The street was completely empty and, just like he expected, the stores were deserted and shut down. Not even the traffic light was working. It blinked yellow constantly. It was strange how different two streets could be despite being so close to each other.

He continued to walk on the sidewalk past the shops, studying them nervously. It reminded of the time when Hailey took him to visit her old neighborhood. It was old and empty, which freaked him out, and she had to constantly punch him in the arm to get him to calm down.

While thinking about it, a cold gust of wind blew out of nowhere and blew his Sploosh away. David shivered and looked up. Three gigantic clouds had blocked the sun.

After shivering, he realized that he had lost his Sploosh. He began to panic as he rushed across the road, surveying the streets for it.

"Please…. not my Sploosh, too. It means a lot to me…" David cried, walking down the empty road.

"Looking for this?" a voice called. It was faint and low.

David whirled around. Nobody was there. Not even a passerby or a car. He began to panic even more. First he lost his SquidPhone, then his Sploosh, and now he was hearing things.

"Great! Now I'm hearing things! Or maybe it's a ghost?" he wondered aloud, beginning to shiver even more. He himself could no longer tell if he was shivering because of the cold or because he was scared.

"Dude, calm down. And I'm not a ghost."

So someone _was_ there. It was coming from the right and was much more audible from where he was standing now, meaning he was close.

David looked to his right. In between two shops was a small alleyway where trash usually was put. A girl was standing there, holding his Sploosh. She had on a black outfit and hair that was...silver.

"Wha-?" David began, and rubbed his eyes. "Are my contacts acting weird?"

He blinked and looked again. The girl jumped over the wall and disappeared. He caught another glimpse of her. The hair was still silver.

David stood there, stunned. Who was she? Why did she have silver hair? And why did she look so familiar?

"It doesn't matter. Let's get out of here and go back to the Square." David told himself. Jet was probably worried about him by now.

There was a silence as David continued to think to himself.

"But she has my Sploosh. I need to get it back…" he looked at the wall and sighed. This definitely was one of his stupidest ideas yet.

David walked nervously into the alleyway. Luckily there was no trash, but broken glass and dead rats still lay there, and it smelled vaguely of smoke. After some difficulty, he climbed over the wall of the alleyway and looked around. He was on the other side of a pond, which separated the stores from the neighborhood complex.

An inkling girl was right in front of him, leaning against a tree. She was the most mysterious, and probably the prettiest, looking inkling girl David had ever seen. She had a short black hoodie with striped sweatpants and white sneakers. She had a glove on her right hand and two silver rings on her left hand. She had purple eyes and long…silver hair. Just like he saw a few minutes ago.

"Ah, so you actually followed me. You're the second person to do that." she nodded.

David coughed and tried to speak, but for some reason he couldn't say anything. His mouth was completely dry and his tongue refused to move.

"Uh, you gonna say anything?" she asked, confused.

Still nothing. But slowly, after a few minutes, he finally overcame the shock.

"Your hair…" he finally managed to say. His voice was a lot more high-pitched than usual.

"Oh." she sighed. "That's what's gotten you so worked up."

"How...how is it….silver?"

"Kid, it's not that surprising. I'm a hacker. Quite a few of them have been around back when Inkopolis Plaza was open." she shrugged, folding her arms.

"But…." he shook his head. "None of them had silver hair. And that outfit…" he glanced at the hoodie. "Where...did that come from?"

"I have my ways." she reached into her pocket and pulled out David's Sploosh. "I believe you lost this and wanted it back." she held it out for him to grab.

David glanced at it and then back at the girl.

"Just take it." she sighed. "Seriously, I'm not made out of poison or anything. And I'm not in the mood to hurt anybody."

David winced, glanced at it again, and then slowly reached for it. Then he quickly grabbed it.

"Um, thanks…" he muttered. He turned around to go.

"I never thought I'd see the day…"

"See what, kid?"

David turned around abruptly. "How did you hear me? I-"

"You're kinda loud. And like I said, I have my ways."

He sighed. "What I don't get is _how_ specifically you got that hair. And how do you get into the Square? It's not like wigs exist or anything."

"What makes you think I can tell you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"What?"

"How do I know you're not gonna run off and tell your little friends? It almost happened the first time. This one girl, she found me. Became good friends. Then she spilled it. I made sure she would remember it when she…" she trailed off and looked down. "Never mind. It's not important."

"Well, no one's gonna believe me. When I saw you the first time, I told my squad members and then they accused me of having bad eyesight."

She smiled slightly. "That's good. But still, I can't trust you just yet."

"What'll make you trust me?" David asked.

She thrust her hands into her pockets. "Dunno." She glanced up at the clouds. "Up to you to figure that out."

"Y'know, I'm just going to go back to the Square." David frowned. "Better than wasting my time here if you're not going to spill."

"Well, I'm not. So it's better for you to do so."

"Good." David snapped. He walked back to the wall and was about to hop over once again when he felt her tap his shoulder.

"What now?" he scowled.

"Easy, kid. Thought you needed this." she handed him a small brown package with purple string tied around it. "Heard you've been looking for it."

He slowly softened. "Thanks, uh…" he looked down. "Whatever your name is."

"My real name is unknown. But you can call me Silver."

"How original…" he muttered, rolling his eyes. He then noticed the girl's stare and quickly apologized. "Sorry."

"Whatever. Don't you think you should get out of here before it rains?"

He looked up at the sky. The sun had disappeared completely. Three big gray clouds now covered the entire sky, and he noticed much darker clouds in the distance behind the neighborhood. A quick flash of lightning appeared between one of the clouds.

"Oh, you're right. But what about you?"

"I'll be fine. Now get out of here, kid."

David nodded and hopped over the wall, running out of the alleyway and down the street. He looked back one last time and saw the tip of her head pop out. He turned back around and ran back to the Square as fast as he could.

When he reached JellyFish cafe, he stopped at the outdoor bench to rest. Feeling tired and out of breath, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a chocolate bar. He took a bite and reached for his Sploosh when he remembered about the package.

"She said I would've been looking for it. But I didn't order anything." he wondered curiously. He felt the package. "Okay, it doesn't seem like it would kill me."

Cautiously, he reached for the string and pulled it, which instantly undid the knot. He then grabbed the package and carefully opened it. He gasped once he saw what was sitting inside his package.

It was his SquidPhone.

* * *

"Okay…." Stella sighed, stopping in the hallway by the dormitories. She had returned from her academic lesson about specific tactics when fighting. "I'll just go back to my dorm, hide the folder, and then go to lunch. Then I'll head to training. If I can avoid Erin for the rest of the day…"

She shook her head. This wasn't going to work.

"I'm so dead. I know what Erin's like when she's mad, and it's not good at all. I just want to somehow tell her without making her mad." Stella muttered sadly.

"What if it ruins our friendship?"

"Who's making who mad?" someone asked.

Stella jumped. She turned around and saw an older red-haired male Octoling who was leaning against the wall. "What goes on, Stella?" he smiled.

"Nothing." Stella snapped. "And stop sneaking up on me, please."

"Why not?" he asked.

"I mean it Jacc, please stop it."

"Yeah, you know that isn't gonna happen."

Stella rolled her eyes. "If I went out with you, would you stop sneaking up on me?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed and sat up eagerly. "Of course I would! I'd-"

Stella laughed. "Well, it's not gonna happen. I'd rather marry an Octostomp."

Jacc frowned, a little hurt, but shook it off. "Alright then. I won't stop sneaking up on you."

"Actually, I think I can live with that…" she giggled.

Jacc scowled and folded his arms.

"What've you got there in your pocket?" he asked, glancing at the folder sticking out of Stella's clothes.

"Huh?" Stella looked down and saw the folder exposed. "Uh, nothing!" she nodded, shoving it back in her pocket.

"Nothing? That didn't look like nothing to me?" he wondered. He approached Stella.

"Let me take a look at it." he smirked.

"No…" Stella whispered, now shaking. "It's none of your concern…"

"You sure?"

"Look Jacc." she began, standing up firmly. "I know you like me and that we're friends, but I'm _not_ showing you what's in my pocket. It's private information-"

"That you stole, right?"

Stella swore and blushed. "What?!"

"Those folders are stolen, right? You took those from Erin didn't you?"

Stella stood absolutely still. She looked down, trying her best not to cry.

"Stella, confess. That stuff is stolen, right?"

A long silence dragged on. Finally, Stella took a deep breath.

"How….how did you know?"

Jacc smirked again. "Security cameras. But also because it was obvious."

Stella shook her head. "So, Erin already knows?"

"She knows that you know where the folders are and all the details about the plan. I know that you stole the folder, but did you tell Daphnne everything as well?"

Stella slowly nodded. Jacc reeled back.

"Stella, what the _hell_ is wrong with you?" he snapped. "Why would you ever do such a thing like that behind your friend's back? What if it ruins your friendship?"

Those phrases hit her harder than she expected. She winced, scrunched up, covered her face, and sank to her knees right in front of Jacc.

"You're right….this plan was stupid. I never should've done it. I wanted Daphnne to believe the lies so that she would take over the plan and completely destroy it. And-"

Jacc raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

Stella wiped her face, which was wet from some tears. "Promise you won't tell anyone, Jacc. Not even Erin. I'll tell her myself."

"I don't know…" he sighed.

"I mean it Jacc…" Stella snapped, her face even redder than before. "You can't tell anyone this."

"What do I get out of it if I don't tell?"

"I have a better chance of liking you?" Stella shrugged.

"Deal. Now tell me."

She checked around the corridor for security cameras and passerby. When she was sure the coast was clear, she sighed and turned to Jacc. "I told Daphnne the plans, but I gave it to her so I could abandon it and come up with a new plan."

"What? Why are you speaking so quietly?"

Stella stood up. "Just to be safe."

"Okay, but what do you mean by abandoning the-"

"I don't trust Daphnne, Jacc. I never did. The reason why I told her the plan and gave her control over it was so I could abandon it and start a new plan. A backup plan. That way, if the big plan fails, I can get rid of her one and for all."

"Stella…"

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to trust the cruelest and most mischievous leader of our entire training and education facility? Do you, Jacc?"

He sighed. "No…."

"Exactly."

"So, let me get this straight…" Jacc shook his head. "You're tricking Daphnne into getting herself removed from the facility and kicked into the streets?"

"Or thrown into Compound #3 where she spends the rest of her life trapped behind bars. I hardly care what happens to her."

"I don't know, Stella. Daphnne's really clever."

"By the time she finds out, it'll be too late. Trust me on this."

"When is Daphnne and her group attacking or whatever?"

"Saturday evening. Apparently there's a premiere going on in Inkopolis Square that night. We'll barge in, crash the premiere, and capture some people?"

"Stella...what? How can you come up with a backup plan to counter that?"

Stella smirked, which surprised Jacc. She leaned close to him and studied his green eyes.

"We still follow the plan, but go on our own path when she starts to attack." She pulled out a folder from her pocket.

"Is that-?" Jacc began.

"This is the second folder I stole from Erin. Daphnne has the first one, but doesn't know I had this one the whole time. I told her about it, but pretended I forgot to bring it."

"What do you suggest we do?"

Stella shook her head. "I don't know. That's where Erin comes in. I'll have to speak to her. Where is she?"

Jacc shrugged. "Don't know. Probably in her dorm or something."

"No…." Stella muttered. "I know where she is." Before Jacc could ask her where, Stella sped down the hallway as fast as she could.

* * *

"Amazing performance, ladies." The director smiled from behind the camera. "This premiere is going to blow Inkopolis away. It'll be a night they'll never forget. Especially your raps, Pearl. Fascinating."

"Thanks, Eric!" Pearl beamed.

"Anytime, Pearl." he nodded. He then looked at his watch. "You ladies are free for the rest of the day. But I think it's still raining so be careful outside."

"Oh, we'll be fine." Callie assured him. "Right, Marie?"

"Huh?" Marie looked up from her SquidPhone. "What?"

Eric chuckled. "See you guys around!" He then exited the room.

Callie sighed. "Never mind, Marie." She then turned to Marina and Pearl. "Well, we'll see you guys on Thursday right?"

"Yep! Looking forward to another rehearsal that day." Marina smiled. "But for now, we're just gonna go home and kick back."

"Us too." Marie nodded. "Plus, Agent 4 is still there."

"Oh no!" Callie exclaimed. "I completely forgot about Agent 4!"

"Relax, Callie. She's fine." Marie said, rolling her eyes. "She's Agent 4; if she's in trouble she'll fight her way out. She knows what to do."

"I know that, but I just don't think it's safe leaving her there for that long, y'know? Besides, we won't be getting home till 4 o'clock and…." Callie shook her head.

"Let's just get out of here and go to the mall, Callie." Marie sighed, slipping on her disguise. She turned to Marina.

"Bye Marina. Bye Pearl."

"Bye." Marina waved.

"Bye Callie!" Pearl shouted eagerly. Once the two Squid Sisters had finished putting on their outfits, they left the room and shut the door behind them.

"Well, that was pretty fun wasn't it, Marina?" Pearl asked.

Marina didn't answer. She was too busy thinking about what Marie said.

 _She's Agent 4; if she's in trouble she'll fight her way out._ Why did that sound so familiar?

"Marina? Are you okay?"

Marina blinked and looked down at Pearl. "Huh?"  
Pearl sighed. "Are you okay? You're not answering me."

"Oh! No, I'm fine, Pearlie. I'm just thinking about something Marie said."

"Was it about Agent 4?"

Marina jumped and glanced at Pearl, who flushed slightly. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. It's just that something about it seems familiar and I don't know why."

"Maybe it has to do with your arrival?"

"I don't know…" Marina sighed. "I just can't figure out why. Could you help me out?"

Pearl tapped her chin. "Two years ago...there was a fight in OctoValley. DJ Octavio vs. Agent 3. One of the biggest fights anyone had ever seen."

"How do you know?" Marina asked timidly.

"How do I know? It was all over the news for like 2 weeks! Agent 3, the one who defeated Octavio, was proclaimed a hero after the event. Many say that it changed the lives...and hearts...of some of the Octolings who witnessed it. After the whole fight, the Octarians migrated to Octo Canyon I believe. Neat, huh?"

"Yeah…it's...it's cool." Marina suddenly whimpered.

Pearl's smile faded. "Everything okay, Marina?"

"Y-yeah...I'm probably just dehydrated. C-could you pass me my water bottle?"

"Uh, sure." Pearl shrugged, reaching over to grab it. She handed it to Marina. "Drink up."

"Th-thanks." Marina tried to smile, but it hurt for some reason. She brought the water to her lips and tried to drink it, but it suddenly slipped and splashed all over the floor.

"Marina!" Pearl gasped. "What the hell? Why did you just spill…."

She trailed off and began to worry when she saw Marina. Her face was red and sweaty, but she was shivering violently. She looked like she was crying, but her face was absolutely calm and happy."

"M-Marina?"

Marina continued to shake. She couldn't even talk anymore.

"Marina! Are you sick? Speak to me! When's the last time you've been to a doctor?"

"D-doctor?" Marina gasped, her knees wobbling even more.

"Yes! When's the last time you've gone?"

"Y-years…"

"Years? Marina!"

"Don't shout!" she snapped. "I-I wanna g-go home."

"No." Pearl said firmly. "I'm taking you to the doctor."

"No." Marina answered back and started towards the door. A moment later, she stopped shivering and collapsed near the door, gasping slightly.

That's when Pearl screamed and reached into her pocket for her phone. She grabbed it quickly and tapped on Callie's number as hard as she could.

 _Pearl? What's the matter?  
_

"I need you to come back! Now!"

 _Why?_

"Marina's...something's going on with her and I don't know what it is! She just started shivering and sweating and then fainted."

There was a silence. Pearl began to pale. If Callie hung up on her, she was so dead.

"C-Callie?"

 _We're on our way._

Pearl hung up and quickly ran towards Marina. With some difficulty, she heaved Marina onto the couch by the table. She removed the hair from her face and felt her forehead. It was sizzling hot.

"Dear god…" Pearl muttered.

"Am I...am I okay?" Marina wheezed.

"Yes...yes you are. Now go back to sleep." Pearl whispered.

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me, Marina."

"What if I d-"  
"You are not going to die. Don't you _ever_ say that, Marina. Callie and Marie are on their way."

"I don't know, Pearlie."

"Just go to sleep."

Pearl sighed and felt her eyes slowly water as she went back to sleep.

"You'll be fine, Marina. Everything will be fine."

She stared out the window and watched as the rain began to pour down again.

"Everything will be fine." she cried. "That's what you told me…when they made fun of me…"

 **Done. Phew! That was tough! Sorry if it felt rushed toward the end. I wanted to add more to the chapter.  
Anyway, review! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Guess who's back?  
I'm SO sorry I was gone for so long, I've just been all over the place. I'll try to get back on schedule, but it's going to be pretty hard.**

 **So anyway, here's Chapter 5! Once again, I tried to make it as long as possible. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 5:**

"Hey squiddo? You awake yet?"

David's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he came aware to was the smell of hot dogs. He slowly sat up and then quickly shielded his eyes. He wasn't used to the bright light that was coming from the ceiling.

"Ugh...what? What's happening?" David muttered, now clutching his forehead.

"It's alright, squiddo. Just relax for now."

"No, what's going on?"

"Just relax, okay? Not the best idea to start moving around when you've just woken up."

David sat up and rubbed his eyes. He slowly patted the couch that he was lying on.

"Can I at least stand up?" he asked.

"Alright…"

David stood up and shivered. His clothes and hair was soaking wet, and his shoes were in the far end of the corner of where he was. Crusty Sean was in front of him, eating a plate full of his own food.

David looked around and tilted his head to the side. He squeezed his blue hair to wring out the water.

"Where am I?" he asked curiously, watching the amount of water spill onto the floor.

"My shoe management place of course!" Crusty Sean exclaimed. "It's-"

Crusty Sean stopped and stared at the puddle of water on the floor that came from David's hair. He then sighed and shook his head in disapproval.

"You'll be mopping that up, right?"

"What?" David looked down on the floor and flushed, trying to mop up the water with his socks.

"Sorry, I didn't realize how much got on the-"

"It's alright I guess, it won't take long to clean." Crusty Sean nodded, handing David a mop. "Don't worry, I'm not too mad about it."

David sighed and walked into the opposite corner to pick up his shoes. They were pretty much the only dry things besides his Sploosh…

His Sploosh! Where was it? He quickly scanned the room, but couldn't see his backpack anywhere. He began to panic. What if Crusty Sean forgot completely about his items?

"Uh...Crusty Sean?" David asked timidly, his voice slowly becoming higher in pitch.

"What is it, squiddo?" Crusty Sean asked, polishing a shoe he found in the corner.

"How did I get here exactly?" If was going to wonder where his backpack was, he at least had to know why he turned up here in the first place.

"How do you not remember? You were asleep in the pouring rain right on that bench! So, the sympathetic person I was, I took you into my old shoe shop and let ya sleep in a much more dry place."

"Did you see any of my stuff? Like my backpack?" David asked nervously.

"How couldn't I have? You were clutching the thing like it was a teddy bear or something! I put it in the back near the heaters so it could dry quicker."

"But...I'm pretty sure that Bisk took over your shop."

"Hm?" Crusty Sean asked, his mouth full of food.

"Didn't Bisk take over your management company and change the name to 'Shella Fresh' or something?"

"Huh? We aren't in Inkopolis Square, squiddo. We're at an old shop of mine near the tower." he answered.

"Oh…" David muttered. He walked toward the back of the shop and noticed his backpack lying in the corner near some old, worn out shoes. He picked it up and dug inside. Everything was in there: his Sploosh, his SquidPhone, his extra clothes, his food, and his ink tank.

"Oh, thank you, Crusty Sean…" David whispered, pulling out his Sploosh. It was still a bit warm from the heaters, but he couldn't care less. He embraced it and set it back in his backpack.

"Now that you're awake, squiddo. Shouldn't you be figuring out a way to get home?"

"Yeah, my Squad is probably worried sick…" David muttered, taking a bite of an apple. Then his eyes widened. "Oh no! My squad! They don't know where I am! I gotta find them!" he put on his backpack and began to walk out.

"Easy, squiddo. It's still kind of raining. Just give 'em a call." Crusty Sean called after him. "And mop this floor, will ya? I don't wanna slip and fall and fracture something."

"Oh...right…" David chuckled. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his phone.

"Shit!" he muttered under his breath, noticing the amount of messages and missed calls from each of his members. He then blushed at his own profanity and looked around. Crusty Sean was still polishing shoes. He wouldn't notice anything.

David tapped on Ari's contact, and put his phone to his ear. His heart began to thump as the dial tone went on. What would Ari say? How mad would she be? What would happen to him?

Then he began to think about Silver, the girl he met that gave him his phone. He began to get suspicious.

 _How did she find my phone? How did she know it was mine? Did someone give it to her? Does she even know who I a-_

 _DAVID!  
_

David jumped as Ari screamed at the other end. She was _definitely_ pissed. He looked at Crusty Sean, who was inspecting another shoe and still eating. David inched into the corner of the room.

"A-Ari?"

 _Is David there?_ Hailey's voice. Unlike Ari, she seemed just tired and worried. _Can I talk to him? Please?  
_

 _NO!_ Ari's voice again. She seemed completely out of control. _AND GET AWAY FROM MY PHONE!_

"Umm! I'm going to call you when you're calmer!" David blurted.

 _CALMER?! WHAT?! DID I HEAR YOU RIGHT? COME TO OUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW SO THAT-"  
_

David hung up quickly as Crusty Sean turned to face him. He stared at David's frightened face and chuckled.

"Ladies. They'll get upset over anything."

"I'm...just gonna text Hailey." David muttered, declining Ari's second call.

"Hailey? She's the Luna Blaster girl with you, right?"

"Yeah. Although she switched to the Berry Splattershot Pro like a day ago. I don't know why she'd even think of doing that…"

"Maybe she got tired of the Luna?"

"I don't know...it's not like her at all. I hate the way she's acting, and I really hope she stops."

"Is it a phase or something?"

"No, it's almost as...if something's affected her brain or someone's poisoned her mind. I hope it goes away so that the real Hailey can come back…" he trailed, off noticing Crusty Sean's look and looked.

"This Hailey...is she your girlfriend?" Crusty Sean asked.

David's head jerked up and his face went red. Then he threw his backpack to the side and angrily stood up.

"No she's not!"

"I'm sorry, I-"

"I'm going to say it for the last time. She's not my girlfriend! Why does everyone assume that? She's just my friend and my squad partner! That's it! We don't even like each other that much!" he shouted.

"Whoa...take it easy. I was just asking a question."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I've just heard that question so many times that I'm sick of it…" David sighed.

"Well-"

"I don't like Hailey and she doesn't like me. We're just friends." he concluded. "Ask her. She'll tell you the same thing pretty much."

Silence.

"I see." Crusty Sean finally responded nodding slowly. Then he turned around to continue observing and polishing shoes.

"Why doesn't anyone ever believe me…?" David asked angrily, opening up the texting app. He then took a deep sent Hailey a message.

David: Hey.

David waited a bit, and then his phone buzzed.

Hailey: Oh thank the admins. You're ok.

Hailey: But why are you texting when you can just call?

Hailey: Also, Ari's pissed that you just hung up on her like that. She won't talk to us.

David: Why else did you think I hung up? I was scared as hell!

Hailey: You know she's just worried about you. :/

David: It doesn't seem like it…

David sighed as he sent the response. It took a while before Hailey texted back.

Hailey: She's just overprotective. But I know how you feel.

David: Really?

Hailey: Yup. Did the same thing to me this morning!

David. Oh...that sucks.

Hailey: It's okay. I learned about back sassing when I was in school.

David: Haha, that's true.

Hailey: But back to the topic...where the hell have you been? We called the police over two hours ago!

David: I'm with Crusty Sean. Don't worry, I'm fine.

Hailey: Yeah, okay. But how did you end up with Crusty Sean in the first place? That's what I'm trying to ask you!

David: Okay...well…

David couldn't lie. He had to tell.

David: I lost my phone, couldn't find it, and went to Crusty Sean for help. He said that I could go to this phone shop near the tower and then I….

David paused. He decided not to tell her all about Silver just yet.

Hailey: Yeah? What else?

David: Um...some girl handed me my phone back and then I got caught in the rain. Then Crusty Sean brought me into his shoe shop to rest until the rain stopped.

Hailey: …

David: Doubt it all you want, but that's what happened.

Hailey: I don't know, David. It sounds made up to me.

David: …

Hailey: Whatever. Can you just give the address of the shop so that we can bring you home?

David: No, I'll get home myself.

Hailey: David?

David shut off his phone and shoved it into his pocket. He was done for now. Why couldn't she just believe him for once?

He then grabbed his backpack and went to the front entrance, cursing under his breath.

"Leaving already, squiddo?" Crusty Sean asked, placing some more shoes away. "It's still kinda raining."

"Bit of rain won't hurt." David shrugged.

"Well, alright then. See ya later." Crusty Sean nodded.

"Bye." David waved, and then stepped out the door. He couldn't help but feel guilty as he shut the door. He never mopped up the floor.

He walked down the empty street, not sure of where he was going or where he was. The only thing he knew was that he was angry, and he didn't feel like dealing with his squad anymore.

His phone kept buzzing frequently, and David couldn't help but be curious about it despite trying to ignore it. Eventually, he gave up and sat down on the sidewalk. He opened his phone and checked the messages.

Hailey: David, speak.

Hailey: David?

Hailey: Just please tell me what happened. No point in lying now.

Hailey: I know you're there and you're just ignoring me. Don't try to fool me.

Hailey: Answer my messages, goddammit.

Hailey: David, I know you're mad, but I really need you to tell me what actually happened.

Hailey: Just answer me. I'm worried about you, okay?

Hailey: You can't stay mad forever.

Hailey: We've located the shop and are on our way there. Don't move a muscle.

David swiped out of the app and stowed his phone away. He chuckled to himself slightly as he continued down the road. Arriving there and finding out he left would be a nasty surprise.

0000000000

The rain slowly came to a stop after what felt like an eternity. The sun had set over an hour ago as what it seemed like.

David walked down the dimly lit street of the old neighborhood. His fingers were cold from the icy air, but he didn't feel like warming them up.

How long had he been gone? Hours? Minutes? Maybe time had barely passed, and he was just imagining everything. Maybe he was still on Crusty Sean's bench, fast asleep. He took out his water bottle and began to drink. He then checked his phone. There were no new messages directed toward him, but plenty of them in the group chat. He decided not to check it just yet. They were probably bad-mouthing him anyway.

It was time to go home. He couldn't keep walking around forever. Where would he sleep? Outside? He ate another protein bar and continued walking down the street, hoping to find a sign to tell him where he was.

Then he started to feel guilty for getting mad at Hailey like that. He _did_ lie to her by not telling her about Silver. Maybe he'd apologize to her the next day. Or maybe he'd apologize now. He didn't know what to do.

"Kid? What are you doing out here so late?"

David turned around and saw a passerby sitting on a bench with a black coat, a white hat, and sunglasses. "It's late to be out here, kid."

"What time is it?" David asked.

"Near 8pm I suppose. Don't know about you, but that's a bit late if you ask me."

"8pm?!" David gasped. "H-how long have I been wandering around?"

"Don't know, kid." the passerby shrugged. He took off his sunglasses and cleaned them.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked, lifting up his glasses to inspect them.

"From the intersection at Double Splat."

The passerby almost dropped his glasses.

"Double Splat?! That's at least 7 miles of walking to get here, kid! Do you even know where you are?"

David looked around at the old houses and shook his head. "No..."

"Guess."  
David sighed in exasperation. "Wasabi Road?"

"No!"

"Oh, that's probably too far. Uh, 2nd Splat Street?"

"No!"

"Uh...Cherry Drive?"

"No! You just keep getting farther and farther away from this location! You walked 7 miles, kid! 7 miles! Most of those streets are hardly 3 miles away from Double Splat!"

"Then where the hell are we?!" David nearly screamed.

"We're all the way at Tentatek Drive, kid! Tentatek Drive! One of the last neighborhoods in the city! You're pretty much on the outskirts of Inkopolis!"

It took a while for those words to sink in to David's head. Once they did, and he truly understood, he began to freak out.

"What?!" David shouted. "My apartment is all the way on the other side of the city!" he jerked his thumb to the right. "That's at least ten miles away!"

"7 miles, actually. If you want to get home before midnight, best to start walking now! You've been walking by yourself all this time?"

"Maybe…"

"Are you going to walk home by yourself?" he asked.

"No." David grumbled. "I'll call someone to pick me up." he then turned around so that the passerby couldn't ask him any more questions.

He threw his stuff on the floor and sat down. He picked up his SquidPhone. _Dozens_ of messages and missed calls from each of his squad members were on his phone.

He sighed and called Ari. She was the only one that knew how to drive.

 _David?! Oh thank the admins, you're alive!_

"Y-you're not mad at me?" David asked shyly. Ari had never been that overjoyed to hear him before.

 _What? Of course I am! But it's okay._

 _Ari, can I talk to David?_ Hailey's voice again. She sounded hurt and guilty of something. _Please?  
_

 _No Hailey, this is my phone. Back up._

 _But-  
_

 _Back up, Hailey!_

 _No! I want to talk to him! Give me the damn phone! I'm tired of being nice!_

 _Cut the attitude, Hailey! And-_

"No, guys. Please don't fight." David shouted, his voice breaking. He heard himself start to cry and cleared his throat. "Not at a time like this."

Ari must've heard David's voice quiver, because she immediately became quiet and calm again. _Well, alright. But where are you, David? We still have a search party looking for you!_

David looked around the dark neighborhood nervously. "I'm...all the way...at Tentatek-"

 _Road, right? That's not far; we'll be there in 5 minutes-_

"No, Tentatek Drive. Y'know, the street towards the outskirts of Inkopolis. The 'old' side of Inkopolis?" he sighed and waited for Ari's angry reply.

 _What? How the hell did you end up all the way over there?_ She wasn't screaming it like she did normally. Her voice was awfully quiet and awkward.

"I don't know, Ari. I just walked….and now I'm here." his voice began to quiver again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run away, I was just mad because…because…."

 _Save it, ok? We're coming. Don't worry, David. I understand._

"You do?"

 _Yes. It's not your fault okay? We may be mad at you, but we understand. Especially Hailey. She's extremely guilty for chasing you off. She didn't mean to, David. She really didn't._

"Can I talk to her? I now realized that...I did lie."

There was a pause.

 _Not now, okay? Right now, let's just focus on getting you home._

"Oh. Um, do you think you'll be able to get here?"

 _Yes. I know the road I'll be there in twenty minutes to pick you up._

"Really? You're not going to make me walk home? I thought-"

 _Of course not, David! Why would you assume that? We're not that cruel!_ Now she sounded mad.

"But-"

 _Look, we care for you alright? You still are important to us and we would never leave you like that, no matter how mad we are! So stop talking shit like that! We love you too much to just do that to you! Jet, Hailey, all of us! We care too much! You may not think that, but we do! So what if Jet always makes fun of you and Hailey and I always accuse you of lying? In the end, if you get cornered by some assholes that want to beat you up, who's gonna be there to stop them? Us! So never assume something like that, okay?!_

Silence. David could no longer speak. Ari's reply hit him hard even though it shouldn't have. He felt himself wanting to cry and it was getting harder to resist the urge.

"Ari? R-really?

 _Yes, David. All of it is true. We chose you to be in our squad because we thought you're be good for us! And we were right!_

Silence again.

 _Tell you what, when I find you, I'll get you a little something at Jellyfish Cafe._

"I...I…" David paused and looked around. The passerby was no longer there.

He put his ear to the phone again.

"Thank you…" David whispered, tears now streaming down his cheeks. "Thanks, Ari."

 _You're alright._ Ari's voice seemed to be breaking as well. _You're alright...I mean...you're welcome..._

* * *

"Hailey, stay here." Ari spoke firmly, grabbing her purse. "I'm going to pick up David."

"What?" Hailey shouted. "That's unfair! I want to see him!"

"You'll see him when he comes back." Ari snapped. She then grabbed a pillow and threw it at Jet, who shouted and fell off the couch.

"What the hell?!" he yelled, rubbing his eyes.

"Watch over Hailey to make sure she doesn't kill herself or anything." Ari snapped at Jet. "If I come back and you're asleep and Hailey's nowhere to be found, I'm going to kill you."

She then gazed at her V.I.P ticket that glittered in her purse and smiled. "I'll be leaving now." she walked out the front door and closed it shut. A minute later, Ari's car backed out of the driveway and zoomed down the road.

"Stupid pillows…" Jet muttered, rubbing his neck. He glanced at Hailey, who giggled, causing him to sigh.

"I'm not going to be your babysitter because you're 16 years old and know how to take care of yourself just fine." Jet began. "So if you expect me to tuck you in tonight, forget it."

Hailey laughed. "Yeah, I know."

"Why does Ari want you to stay here for the week anyway? You haven't been having any more...hallucinations have you?"

Hailey froze and glanced at Jet, who was now gazing at her suspiciously. He seemed to already know and was trying to justify his answer.

"I…" Hailey sighed.

"I had one this morning, but it didn't last as long. It was worse than yesterday's though. There was this voice that was saying something...something that I forget..."

She swallowed and shook her head. Jet nudged her with his elbow.

"Hey, go on." he frowned. "I need to hear this, because it seems important."

Hailey swallowed again. "Well, after the voice, I screamed at it to leave me alone and said that I would never submit to it. After I said that, it just...left. And then... it ended."

Jet put his hand on his chin. "You're fine now, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now. But now I'm just worried. It has just been twenty-four hours, and I've already had two of these things. Wouldn't it be better to go to the doctor just now?"

"We're going first thing tomorrow morning, Hailey. You'll be fine. Promise."

"I hope so…" Hailey muttered under her breath. She picked up her Berry Splattershot Pro and flicked a crumb off the top of the handle.

"Why'd you switch to the Berry Splattershot Pro anyways?" Jet asked her.

"Huh? Oh, that…" she frowned. "I didn't switch, I just decided to try out a new weapon."

"Sure you did…"

"I'm serious!" Hailey snapped. "I didn't abandon the Luna at all! I'll still use it! I just thought I'd give the Berry a try! That's all!"

"No you didn't, Hailey. I know you well enough. If you were picking a new weapon, you would've chosen the Forge Splattershot Pro, not the Berry."

"And just how do you know that?" Hailey asked, folding her arms.

"You wouldn't shut up about it back when we first became a Squad."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is. You would always babble on about how amazing the Forge Splattershot Pro and how you'd buy that weapon first if it ever came back into Ammo Knights."

"You actually…listened to what I said?" Hailey whispered.

"Of course I did! I'm the leader, and an expert in eavesdropping! Not only that, but you used to talk a lot back then. Don't know why you're so quiet now." Jet shrugged.

"I wanna know why David's so quiet." Hailey interjected suddenly, trying to change the subject. "As much as I want to believe him, I feel like he knows something that we don't."

"...And why is that such a huge concern for you?" Jet asked.

"Because he's David! Have you seen him lately? He's all shy and nervous and can hardly exceed 3 kills in a match! Something's up."

"He's just out of it, Hailey."

"I refuse to believe he's just 'out of it'. It's more than that. Call me stubborn, but I think he knows something that I don't."

"Maybe he's having hallucinations, too?"

"Really, Jet?" Hailey sighed, shaking her head.

"No, think about it. This morning, he was just completely sick of everything and just flat out giving up on everything. I mean, we _did_ get our asses whooped in both Rainmaker and Salmon Run, but he just quit even though we had barely started! Then he started mumbling on and on about how he wasn't liking his Sploosh! What's next? He starts hearing weird voices in his head and starts having seizures?!"

Hailey's eyes widened. She placed her hand on her cheek and tapped it absently.

"No, he's fine. I think he just needs space and rest. We're probably overwhelming him. Same with me I guess."

"Nah, he needs to get to A+ in his Tower Control mode. I won't let him rest until he does." Jet laughed.

"He's still A-?" Hailey giggled, completely forgetting about what she said 15 seconds ago.

"He hit A rank last week, but hasn't played Tower Control since. Probably isn't in the mood for Ranked anymore."

Hailey was about to laugh, when her stomach rumbled loudly. She blushed and looked down before shaking her head. "Oh god, that was-I'm sorry, I-"

"Pfft, it's fine. Ari is a lot worse. You hungry?"

"Yeah, I haven't eaten since this morning."

"So, you want dinner?" Jet asked, sitting up. "Ari made a really good soup that I'd like you to try."

"Yeah, I guess." Hailey sighed, brushing a lock of hair from her face. "I'm kinda hungry anyway."

"So am I, but I don't feel like eating." Jet shrugged.

"What? How does that work?" Hailey asked.

"I don't know. It happens to me all the time." Jet laughed, opening the fridge.

"Okay…" she took a sip of her water bottle and put her feet up. "How's Drew?"

Jet dropped a cup, and it smashed onto the floor. He cursed silently and scooped up the broken pieces before gazing awkwardly at Hailey. "What about him?"

"Just thought I'd know how he's doing." she turned around so Jet could see her face. "And what he thinks about me now."

"Still trying to hit on you, obviously. Happy that you were flattered by his comment though." Jet muttered, rolling his eyes.

"But I never was-" she stopped and glared at Jet. "Did you _tell_ him that I was flattered?!"

"It was obvious, Hailey! You were blushing, looking down, and unable to speak!"

"For like five seconds!"

"Hailey, you were flattered. When was the last time a person not related to you said you were attractive? Huh?"

"I…" Hailey frowned. "Alright, fine."

"Although, aside from that, he and his sister stopped me this morning and told me something very interesting…"

"What was it?" Hailey asked.

"Well, they both challenged our Squad to a battle. Five rounds. Two of them Turf and three of them Ranked."

"A battle? Is it the same team we fought yesterday?"

"Yep. That's Drew's Squad."

Hailey grimaced. "When's the battle?"

"It was originally going to be tonight, but I told him you weren't feeling well. He then said that Friday is the last day because Saturday is the premiere and one of his members is leaving for vacation the day after."

"Friday it is." Hailey snapped without hesitation. She picked up her Berry Splattershot Pro and gazed at it intently. "Friday night."

"Are you sure, Hailey? What if we lose?"

"'What if we lose?!' That's not something _Jet_ would say. He'd turn cocky and act confident that we'd kick their asses."

"I know, Hailey. But they're good. Better than us by at least ten times. Plus, with you acting all strange and David being unusually quiet and irritated, I'm not sure it'll end well."

"I don't care if we win or lose. I just want to splat Drew." Hailey smirked.

"Whoa! Already? Didn't you meet him yesterday?" Jet exclaimed.

"Yeah, so what? I still want to splat him. Why are you so shocked?" Hailey asked, frowning.

"Because you're only 16…" Jet trailed off and tried his hardest not to laugh.

"That's…..that's...that's...not what I meant you stupid piece of shit!" Hailey screamed, her whole face now bright red as she realized the joke. Jet grasped the kitchen counter and tried to contain his laughter as Hailey stormed upstairs.

"It's easy setting you off, Hailey. And you know I was joking." Jet called after her, wheezing harder than ever.

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU WERE! THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR!"

"I had to, I'm sorry!"

"NO YOU DIDN'T!"

"Just come back downstairs, okay? I'm sorry. Ari will shoot me dead if she finds out I pissed you off."

There was silence. Jet poured a bunch of soup into a bowl and sighed.

"Hailey, please. I was joking."

Silence.

"Hailey?"

"What?" she responded angrily.

"Are you going to eat your dinner or not?"

"Ugh, _fine._ " Hailey groaned, walking back downstairs. She seated herself on one of the stools in the kitchen and picked up a bowl of soup. She then took a spoon and began drinking.

"How is it?" Jet asked after a while, gently lowering his empty bowl.

"It's...amazing!" Haley exclaimed, wiping the leftover soup that was dripping from her chin. "What's the recipe?"

"I could give it to you. And I'm glad you like my soup."

"Oh thanks! I really need Ari's-" she froze.

"Wait, _you_ made the soup? I thought you said Ari did!"

"No, I did. I said that Ari did so that you'd actually trust it. After all, you trust her more than you trust me."

"No, that's not true!" Hailey shouted angrily. "Jet, the soup was really good! I still would've eaten it even if you said you made it!"

"Would you?"

"Yes! I would! I'm too hungry to care about who made it anyway!"

"Well," Jet hopped off the kitchen stool and grabbed the empty bowls. "What if I told you that the stew you ate yesterday was also created by me?"

"You're kidding." Hailey gasped, shaking her head.

"Nope." Jet smirked.

"But Ari, but you...she put it…"

"We both thought it'd be a good idea to pretend that Ari made the stew instead of me."

He laughed a little bit and popped back on the stool.

"Ari can hardly cook, Hailey. I'm the one who does the cooking. Ari's the one who does the cleaning and organizes everything around the house."

"Huh." Hailey thought to herself. She gazed around the kitchen, studying the cups, the cupboards, and the walls. Eventually, she noticed a family portrait lying in the corner.

In the portrait was a man and a woman standing up and smiling brightly. In front of them were two kids, a boy and a girl, sitting on what looked like white stools, each of the two cradling a baby. They were all wearing white shirts with long, blue jeans.

"Who are those in the picture?" Hailey asked, pointing to the portrait.

"Huh?" Jet looked down at the portrait.

"Oh, that's just a portrait from about 6 years ago. That's me, Ari, my mom, my dad, and my sister Rachel."

Hailey studied the green-haired baby. "She doesn't look like you."

"Well, she's not related to us. She's adopted."

"What happened to her?"

Jet suddenly winced and turned away. Hailey quickly apologized. "Sorry, too soon?"

"No, it's just...we never really knew each other I guess? She was about two years old when Mom and Dad sent Ari and I to Inkopolis Plaza after we finished school. Shortly after we moved to Inkopolis, we lost contact with our parents."

"Lost contact?"

"Well, I don't really know what happened to them. One day, they didn't answer the phone, and when I questioned witnesses, they said that they just...left without telling us I guess? It's been 3 years since Ari and I have ever….heard of or seen our parents again."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"It's not as if we were really close anyway. They both worked often and kind of ignored us I guess? Looking back, I guess they were busy, but my stupid 12-year-old self thought…."

He sighed and shook his head.

"So the reason why Ari is so protective of you is because you're like her Rachel. I mean, she's younger than I am, you act younger than her despite being only a year younger, and she's always wanted to be the 'older sister' of someone. Same with David, even though he's about her age. So that's why she's so frantic about the hallucinations you've been having."

"I knew she was overprotective about something, but I never knew it was about that." Hailey sighed.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry that I made that joke."

"It's fine." Hailey smiled. "Because I'll make the same joke to you one day."

Jet snorted. "Hailey, I don't hate nor like anyone. Who are you going to tease me with?"

Hailey tapped her chin. "I dunno...Drew's sister seems like the perfect person."

"Kathy? Are you serious?" Jet laughed. "Even if I did like her, I wouldn't care if you made that joke!"

Hailey frowned. "Goddammit, Jet."

* * *

"I really hope it's just a bad flu…" Pearl cried, wiping her eyes with another tissue. "Because if I find out that she has a rare disease that Octolings contract or something, I don't know what I'll...I don't…."

"Calm down, Pearl. It'll be alright." Callie whispered reassuringly. "Remember, she has a different system from ours. So maybe the viruses that we can easily fight off make people like her really sick."

"Thanks Callie," Pearl responded. "Can I have another tissue box?"

Callie sighed and stood up, but the receptionist glared at her in order to get her to sit back down.

"How long have we been here? It shouldn't take that long to get some testing done." Marie sighed, scrolling through apps on her SquidPhone.

"Well, it took an hour to get to the city where the hospital was located unfortunately and another hour to get out of traffic and find parking, so we've been here for about five hours?" Callie shrugged.

"Five hours for a simple exam and blood test?! What the hell?" Pearl shouted.

"I told you that we should've just gone to the local one!" Marie snapped at Callie.

"The local hospital is cheap garbage! They probably don't even operate on Octolings!" Callie exclaimed.

"No hospital does, Callie! That's probably why we've been here so long!" Marie fired back. "They have to analyze how her systems and stuff work because it's so different! The local hospital would've done the same thing! It was a waste of time coming here!"

"It was the nearest hospital that had good reviews! Plus, I'm pretty sure we've been here before-" Callie began

"TO HELL WITH THE GOOD REVIEWS, CALLIE! We're trying to make Marina get better and find out what's wrong with her!"

"Stop screaming! Please!" Callie shouted, covering her ears.

Marie sighed and shoved a handful of peppermints in her mouth. "Fine."

Callie frowned and turned to Pearl. "Has Marina ever been this sick before?"

Pearl shook her head. "No. She's caught the cold quite a few times, but has easily fought it off with the medicine we had. She's never suddenly become hot and sweaty and then acts all weird to the point where she faints right on the floor…"

Marie swallowed her peppermints. "I don't think anyone I've known in my life has either. This is a first."

The receptionist glanced at Marie and shook her head.

"How long are they going to stay here?" she muttered under her breath. "They've been alone with no one else for the past 5 hours. Can't they just-"

"Do you have a problem, ma'am?" Marie snapped. The receptionist turned to face Marie, who was giving her a dirty look.

"Yes, I do." The receptionist began. "Why is it taking the doctor so long to find out things about this patient?"

"I don't know why the doctor is taking so long either. But why the hell are you giving us dirty looks? Is there something you want to talk about?" Marie snapped again.

The receptionist was about to speak her mind about Marie but then the door to the hospital rooms swung open and a doctor came out, carrying a large clipboard in his hand.

"Can I please speak to...Pearl for a minute?" he asked.

Pearl wiped her face and stood up quickly. "Yeah, you can. I'm right here."

"Oh yes…" the doctor murmured, flipping through some papers on his clipboard.

"I'm sorry for the slight delay-"

 _Slight? It's been 5 hours, dipshit!_ Marie thought angrily.

"But after a lot of work, we've done some tests on Marina and found out that some things are a bit off-"

"Just cut to the chase," Pearl snapped impatiently. "Is she in good condition or not?"

The doctor sighed and adjusted the glasses on his face.

"She's...she's not doing so well. Don't worry, she'll live. But she'll need at least...what day is it?"

"Tuesday." Marie called out. "You're smart, right? You should be able to tell the days of the week."

"Marie! Be nice!" Callie exclaimed, smacking at her arm.

"No, I will not be nice!" Marie shouted back, smacking Callie's arm back. "We've been in this waiting room for about 5 hours waiting only to find out that Marina's 'not doing so well'. Yeah, we know she's in shitty condition! She fainted for god's sake!"

"Marie! Now's not time!" Pearl spat. "We need to find out what's wrong with Marina!"

Marie growled and shoved another peppermint in her mouth.

"Ahem. As I was saying..." the doctor began. "Marina's in bad shape. Don't worry, she'll be fine after about...4 days of rest, medicine, water, and a lot of hot soup."

"Four days?!" Pearl exclaimed. "What about the premiere? We won't be able to do more rehearsal in time for it! We'll have to cancel!"

"Do you want your friend to get better or not?" the doctor asked firmly, adjusting his glasses.

"I do…" Pearl sighed, adjusting the crown on her forehead. "But I don't want to cancel the premiere…"

"We have to, Pearlie." Callie muttered. Then she smiled a little. "And we can always just postpone it to next Saturday. I'm sure the people won't mind too much…"

"Yeah, I guess. Better to help Marina than to please the crowd…" Pearl muttered.

"Speaking of Marina, can we see her? Or is she in such bad shape that she can't detect us?" Marie asked.

"Um, you can take her home right now if you want. I'm just about done with her. I'll be leaving anyway."

He then scribbled on his clipboard again and then tore the paper off the clipboard. Callie winced. That sound always got on her nerves.

"Here's the prescription for the medicine you'll need to give to her. There's a prescription store a few miles away that's still open I believe. You could pick the medicine up there."

"Thanks…" Pearl sighed, brushing a tear that was now slowly running down her cheek. She turned to Marie and Callie. "C'mon, let's go see her."

0000000000

" _Hey. You okay?"  
_

 _Marina's eyes fluttered open. She looked around at her surroundings and noticed a heart monitors, some wires, some windows, and a nurse by her side. An inkling boy whom she didn't recognize smiled shyly and waved. "You alright?"_

" _What?" Marina sat up when she felt something pulling at her. She looked at her arm and noticed wires attached to it. She sighed and leaned back into her pillow._

" _What….happened?" Marina asked the inkling boy, wincing in pain._

" _You don't remember what happened?! You fell off a gigantic skyscraper and landed in the middle of a fountain! How the hell did you even survive?"  
_

 _"We…." Marina winced. "Pretty sure we don't have bones."  
_

 _"Yeah, but I'm surprised you didn't die. That fall was-"  
_

 _"That's enough now." the nurse snapped. She jerked her thumb to the door, signaling that he should leave. "Let her be."_

" _I didn't even do anything!"  
_

 _"Just leave." The nurse growled. "Please."  
_

 _The inkling boy sighed and took his SquidPhone out of his pocket before walking out of the door and closing it behind him._

" _You okay, dear? Do you need some water?" The nurse asked a second later, approaching Marina.  
_

 _"No…" Marina sighed, shaking her head. "When can I go home?"  
_

 _"Not for another 2 days I suppose. Why?"  
_

 _"I...I…." Marina caught herself. "My friend...did you see anyone else on the skyscraper?"  
_

 _"No, dear. The only thing we found was this." The nurse took out Pearl's crown, which was bent and cracked, and handed it to Marina. "Is it yours?"_

" _No, it belongs to a friend…" Marina responded, feeling the tears already slipping out of her eyes._

 _The nurse saw Marina's look and shook her head. "I'm sorry for your loss, dear."  
_

 _"I'm...I just can't believe she's gone. It all happened so fast."  
_

 _"What happened to her?"  
_

 _Marina grimaced and blinked the tears out of her eyes. "Murder. She was killed by a...by a..."_

" _What the hell are you babbling on about, Marina?" the nurse suddenly yelled. "I'm still alive you idiot! Now please wake up! I love you too much for you to leave me!"_

" _What the? Pearl?!" Marina exclaimed. She looked at the nurse. "Why the hell do you have Pearl's voice?!"_

" _You're dreaming, you idiot!" the nurse shouted again. "Now wake up!"_

0000000000

"I'm up! I'm up!" Marina shouted, bolting upright. She then winced and clutched her aching forehead before looking around the small. hospital room.

"Oh dammit, not again." she mumbled. Then she shivered and coughed. "Where am I?"

"Marina! Oh thank the lord!" Pearl screamed. Before Marina could react to hearing Pearl's voice again, the inkling swept her up in a hug and accidentally tripped, causing the two of them to topple to the ground hard.

"Jeez!" Marie exclaimed.

"Oh how cute!" Callie gushed.

"How are you feeling?" Pearl asked. She reached for Marina's forehead to feel it but Marina swatted it away.

"Please, Pearl. Don't touch...me. And I feel...like...I just went to...hell, contracted a disease, and came back." Marina responded.

She noticed the slight bits of makeup running around Pearl's eyes and cocked her head to the side. "Were you...were you….crying because of me?"

"What?" Pearl quickly rubbed her eyes. "No! Of course I wasn't! It's just sweat because I was really worried about you!"

"Haha…" Marina smiled. Then she quickly winced in pain and clutched her forehead again.

"Here, let me help." Pearl smiled, lifting Marina to her feet. "You okay?"

"I hate to...say this Pearlie….but I'm not. Everything's going blurry and….I feel….ugh."

"Oh no." Pearl gasped. "Marie! Callie! We gotta get her home before something else bad happens!"

"I want….to go home, Pearlie…" Marina whispered, now beginning to sweat.

"You are, Marina! You are!" She looked around the hallways of the hospital. Nothing.

"Where the fuck is the doctor?" Pearl shouted.

"He left, Pearl. I'm not sure if we can get him right now." Callie spoke gently, placing her hand on her shoulder.

"At a time like this?! What if Marina faints -"

"Don't shout…." Marina mumbled. She stumbled over to Pearl and Callie and quickly grabbed their arms before leaning into the two of them.. Callie gasped. Even with her gloves on she could still feel the sweat and the heat.

"Oh great." Marie sighed, walking into the room. "This is the last of the peppermints. I hope tomorrow we can buy a few packs at the store…."

She trailed off and dropped her peppermints once she noticed the scene in front of her. Callie and Pearl were grabbing Marina's arms while trying to hold her upright. Marie quickly rushed over and held Marina's shoulders, trying to get her to balance.

"Ugh...I can't….feel my hands…." Marina whispered.

"Marina, can you see?" Marie asked gently.

"Mm…yeah..." Marina spoke faintly.

"Alright, can you walk without falling?"

"I guess so…" Marina whispered.

"Okay, we're going to lead you to the car, alright? Would you like some water? Or perhaps some wafers? They ran out of peppermints."

"No, I just...want...to sleep…" Marina yawned, even more sweat now trickling down her arms and forehead. She shivered again and coughed. "I really want to….sleep…"

"Marina, no…" Pearl cried, grabbing her left arm. "Please don't faint again…"

"I'm...cold." Marina spoke before coughing again.

"Here." Pearl responded, taking off her coat and throwing it over Marina's shoulder. "Should warm you up for a little bit-"

"I had a dream, Pearlie…" Marina whispered faintly as the other three started guiding her slowly out of the hospital room.

"Not now, okay Marina? Save your breath." Marie spoke firmly.

"Ooh! I love stories about dreams! What was it about, Marina?" Callie asked excitedly, continuing to lead her out of the hospital.

"It was a continu….a continu….ation...of a dream I had...last night…"

"No, Marina. Please save your breath." Marie interrupted. "Callie, you can listen to the dream once she gets better."

"But what if she forgets about it?" Callie whined.

"She said it was a continuation of a previous dream. That seems weird doesn't it? So she probably wouldn't forget." Pearl answered.

Using her foot, and with the help of Callie and Marie, Pearl kicked open the doors to the hospital. She shivered as she felt the icy air smack her across the face. She wanted to desperately grab her jacket, but it was wrapped around Marina to help keep her warm. All Pearl could do was grit her teeth and pray that the walk to the car wasn't far away.

"Hey, Callie? Where'd you park the car?" Pearl asked, shivering even harder than Marina.

"Over to the right." Callie answered, her teeth chattering.

"Am I the only one fine with the cold?" Marie asked, trying not to let go of Marina's shoulders. "I feel just fine."

"Because you're a cold-blooded inkling. That would also explain why you're so heartless." Pearl answered.

"Ha. Very funny." Marie muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"No seriously, you are. I wasn't being funny."

"What do you have against me?" Marie snapped.

"You insulted our catchphrase!"

"You know that ours is better!"

"No it's not! How are two measly words better than our catchphrase? Nostalgia? Bullshit! Besides, saying, 'These clothes are just Off the Hook!' sounds WAY better than 'These clothes are just so fresh!' And besides-"

"Okay, first of all, calling something 'Off the Hook' is just lame and obviously copying us. Secondly, the reason why our two words are better than your catchphrase is because, unlike yours, our catchphrase isn't cliché. Sure, it isn't as clever, but it's catchy and has a nice feeling to it. And last but not least, we have better songs!"

"No...you...don't…we're….equal…." Marina muttered faintly.

"Um, yes we do, honey." Marie replied. "Let's see….Calamari Inknation, Spicy Calamari Inknation, Tidal Rush, Fresh Start, Maritime Memory...oh! That's already 5 songs that are good compared to the four songs that Off the Hook has _created_."

"We have Muck Warfare, Acid Hues, and Ebb and Flow. I'm sick of Color Pulse. In my opinion, Muck Warfare and Ebb and Flow beat Spicy Calamari Inknation any day!"

"That's a lie!"

"No, it's true! I don't hear any rapping in your song!" Pearl smirked.

"You don't need rapping to sound good you idiot!" Marie spat.

"Don't call me that you bitch!" Pearl fumed.

"I'm the bitch?! Have you even taken a look at your awful, bratty behavior over the newscasts lately?"

"Listen up you-"

"Shut up! Just shut up! Stop arguing!" Marina screamed, causing the two of them to jump.

"Of...all...the things you argue...about….it's about who's better! We're...supposed to be...helping each other for crying out loud…."

Her face began to sweat a lot more than before and she began to look like she was crying. She started to shiver violently and found it hard to speak all of a sudden.

"No…" Pearl muttered, shutting her eyes.. "Don't faint, Marina. Don't faint. _Please_ don't faint…"

Suddenly, Callie gasped. Marie turned to the left to see why Callie gasped when she felt Marina fall into her arms.

"Oof!" Marie cried, almost toppling over. She tried to push Marina up, but she wouldn't budge.

"Oh no! She fainted again!" Pearl shouted, opening her eyes up right away. Then she began to hyperventilate as she quickly helped Marie push Marina back up on her feet. "Quick! Where's the damn car parked?!"

"Over there!" Callie exclaimed. She pointed to the large purple car that was parked under a streetlight. "Quick!"

"I'm...trying!" Marie huffed. "Damn, why is Marina so _heavy_?"

"She...eats….a lot of desserts! And I mean a lot!" Pearl answered.

"I...see…." Marie sighed, pushing her up.

After much difficulty and angry complaints against the cold, the three managed to carry and drag Marina over to the car. Callie quickly opened the back seat and quickly put Marina down on the seat so that she could continue to sleep. Once they had successfully pushed Marina in the car, they took off away from the hospital and towards the prescription store.

"You two need to put your act together." Callie snapped at Pearl and Marie as she sped the car down the dimly lit road. "Seriously, Marina's sicker than we've ever seen anyone in our lives and you argue about who's better? That's just both selfish and kind of messed up…"

"You know we're better." Marie smirked, who was sitting up front in the passenger seat.

"I don't care who's better, Marie! In fact, I hardly care about anything at all! I missed my mall event because Marina got sick and my rehearsal hardly went the way I wanted it to! I just want to go to sleep and hang out with Agent 4 in the morning."

"I can always take you to the mall tomorrow, Callie." Marie frowned, rubbing her eyes.

"No, I want to go with Agent 4 instead." Callie growled.

"Oh, alright." Marie sighed, turning her head to face the window on her side of the car. She was obviously shocked and hurt by Callie's reply.

"How's she doing back there?" Callie asked a few minutes later, peeking up at the rearview mirror. "Is Marina okay?"

"She's...sweating even more than before. But the shivering isn't as violent…" Pearl responded, her voice slightly off. She wiped her face of tears. for what seemed like the millionth time.

Callie nodded, turned right, and then stepped on the brakes, stopping the car.

"Is this the place?" Marie asked quietly, surveying the small store that stood in the middle of an abandoned street.

"Yep. We're at the store the doctor was talking about."

"Why is it in an old place like this?" Marie asked.

"Don't know. That's not my problem." Callie answered. She then turned towards Pearl. "Hey, Pearlie."

"Huh?" Pearl looked up. "Y-yeah?"

"Do you want me to pick up the medicine or send you off to get it?"

"Yeah." Pearl whispered, handing Callie the paper. "You...you go get the medicine."

She leaned towards Marina and felt her shiver slightly. Pearl backed away and sighed.

"I really hope she gets better, Callie." she whispered.

Callie smiled slightly. "Don't worry, Pearl. She will get better. I can promise you that." She then closed the door and walked towards the store with the paper in her hand.

"Thanks, Callie." Pearl responded. She took out her SquidPhone and unlocked her cellular data. Then she signed into her social media app.

"What are you doing, Pearl?" Marie asked. "You gonna blog about this event?"

"What?! No! I'm telling the audience that the premiere is postponed until next week!" Pearl snapped.

"Wait, I thought we were cancelling it."

"Cancelling it? Are you crazy?! No way in hell we're doing that! We're just moving it to next Saturday!"

"Okay, okay...jeez." Marie frowned, taking out her SquidPhone.

"Hm…" Pearl frowned. "What should I say? Should I make it normal or serious?"

"Make it serious, Pearl. Your friend is really sick. Saying it in a normal tone you use is going to sound ridiculous."

She put on a fake high-pitched voice. 'Hey ya'll, my friend is super sick so that fresh premiere is gonna be postponed 'til next week! Thanks in advance and don't get cooked!'"

"I don't sound like that…" muttered. She began typing a bit more and then looked up at Marie.

"What are _you_ doing, Marie?"

"Uh, the same thing, you're doing? And I'm going to contact Eric when we get home and tell him everything. He knows Marina's acting all weird but not that she's pretty sick."

Marina coughed and shivered. Pearl began to panic and quickly clutched Marina's hand.

"What about the premiere?"

"Knowing him, he'll probably want to cancel it because of Marina's sickness…" Marie sighed. "But I don't think it should be too much of a hassle getting him to just postpone it instead if we get enough support from the fans."

"Okay…" Pearl nodded, typing more into her phone. After a while, she looked up again.

"How's this note, Marie?"

Marie looked up at Pearl's phone.

 _Hey ya'll, this is kinda serious, so listen up for a bit. Marina's pretty ill and has to stay home for 4 days, so she won't get better in time for the Off the Hook premiere this Saturday. Since we don't really have an ability to control when the premiere is and what goes on, we're not able to decide what to do if a sudden event like this happens. Usually, the director(Eric in this case) will just cancel the show altogether because apparently postponing it and making a new opening for next week is expensive. But I know we can do better than just cancelling it._

 _Callie, Marie, and I will work with producers and directors starting tomorrow in order to push the premiere to next Saturday instead of canceling it(don't worry, we'll watch over Marina, too). If you could show your support and try to team up with us to help persuade the directors to postpone the event instead of cancelling it, that would be really sweet. We have about a week to do this, and I know that we can do it. Write letters, make videos, E-mail people, post comments, send funds. Just try to spread the word. I know we can do this in one week._

 _To try make it up for the sudden event, we'll be selling more tickets to the show. 100 more V.I.P tickets will be sold, but they will be more expensive due to this.  
Thanks for reading, and make sure to send Marina a bunch of "Get Well" cards and comments. She really needs them. I'll comment again tomorrow if any more info about this comes up. Until then, see ya. Don't get cooked._

 _-Pearl._

"Pearl, I think you're making too many promises in this comment…" Marie muttered.

"Oh? How so?" Pearl asked.

"We don't have any more tickets to sell, the directors and producers are very firm with their decisions and probably _will_ cancel it, and a week is too little!"

"If Marina can slowly recover in 4 days, then we can save the premiere in a week!" Pearl shouted. Then she pressed a button on her phone, posting the comment.

"Has Eric ever cancelled a premiere before?" Marie asked suspiciously.

"Yes! Dozens of times! Do you know how many premieres we've scrapped before this one? About 4! I don't know about you, but that's a lot! I don't want this one to get cancelled, too!"

"Does Eric know what you plan to do?"

"No, and that's a good thing. What are you going to do in your comment, Marie?"

"I just commented about what's going on, traced you comment and posted a link to it, and then said that we need this premiere to be a success. Don't worry, I didn't make it obvious that we were going to make a surprise entrance in the premiere."

"Okay…" Pearl sighed. She then jumped as Callie opened the door and stepped into the car.

"Whew! It's cold out there!"

She then gazed at Pearl and Marie's phones.

"So, did you guys comment on the media about what's going on with Marina?"

"Yeah."

"And?" Callie asked, handing Pearl the bag with the medicine.

"I dunno. Haven't checked my notifications yet." Pearl answered. She opened the bag and studied the green pills inside the container. "Hey, they match Marina's theme color!"

"That's just a coincidence apparently, but it's pretty cool, huh?" Callie smiled. She then started the car. "And I tried calling Agent 4, but she didn't pick up. She's probably asleep."

"This Agent 4, do you call her that for fun or is it like with 'Agent 3' person?" Pearl asked, confused.

"Agent 4 is just friend of ours. We call her that for fun" Callie spoke quickly. She then turned around and backed the car out of the parking lot before Pearl could ask any more questions.

"Now let's take you and Marina home. I bet you two just want to go to sleep."

* * *

"You can't ignore me, Erin!" Stella shouted, pounding on the front door to the lab where Erin often hung out. "Don't even try!"

No response from Erin. Not even an angry reply telling Stella to go away. Not even a footstep.

All that Stella heard was the rustling of papers and the sounds of objects falling onto the floor.

"Erin, please! I promise you I didn't ruin this! We can still change it!" Stella cried.

Still no response. Stella's heart froze as she heard the sound of something shatter.

"You better not be destroying all we've gone through, Erin! I swear!"

No response. Just another object shattering.

"Erin…" Stella whispered. "Just...open the damn door."

She banged on the door one last time with all her might.

"I thought you didn't care about what Daphnne did, just as long as it worked."

Finally, Stella heard it. Footsteps. The knob on front door of the lab began to twitch, and then the door swung open. Erin's head poked out.

"What the hell do you want, Stella?"

Stella quickly wiped her eyes. Now wasn't the time to start crying.

"I...want to tell you….what else I have in mind." she cleared her throat. "It's...It's not too-"

"Yes it is too late to change the plan, Stella! You told her everything! Everything! I don't have a backup plan!"

"No I didn't! I didn't tell her _everything_!"

"Yes, you did! Don't lie to me, Stella!"

"You do realize that I went to Daphnne secretly because I didn't want y _ou_ to tell her everything, right?!"

"Then why did you do it yourself?! You don't even know half of what's going on in the plan! The only thing helpful you've done is release the coding for the monsters into Inkopolis Square!"

"I-" Stella froze. "How did you know that...was me?"

"Wasn't it obvious, honey? You're the only one who knows about the coding and how to control them! I'm happy you did that, but that doesn't give you the right to blab off all we've done!"

"There's still enough I left out to work up another-"

"Stella, just stop. I don't want to hear it."

"Just please listen to me, okay?" Stella snapped. "I can fix this! I just need you to cooperate-"

"With you? Stella, I-"

"ERIN SERIOUSLY! PULL YOUR HEAD TOGETHER!" Stella roared. "THIS COULD BENEFIT YOU MORE THAN YOU THINK!"

Erin blinked. Then she shook her head.

"You teamed up with Daphnne. How about you work the plan with her instead?" She then slammed the door in Stella's face.

"Oh great…." Stella sighed. "She won't even _believe_ anything I say now? And she's not even that pissed at me. What's going on?"

She knocked on the door slowly.

"Erin….please…."

Erin didn't respond by walking over to the door. Instead, she picked up a glass tube lying by her side and threw it at the door. It shattered instantly

"Just go away, Stella! I don't want to talk to you right now!" she yelled. "Don't make me say it again!"

"And by 'right now', you mean 'ever again'..." Stella muttered, walking to her dormitory.

0000000000

"Hey, how did it go?" Jacc asked Stella at dinner, setting his tray down next to her. "Did she listen to you?"

"Does it look like it went well, Jacc?" Stella asked, twirling a piece of spaghetti on her fork. "She won't even believe anything I say! And I don't think she'll talk to me anymore, either…"

Jacc turned around and gazed at Erin's group at a nearby table. Each of them were crowding around a platter of sandwiches, grabbing and eating whatever they could. Hershey, the dark-skinned blue-haired Octoling, turned over to look at Stella and waved.

"Hey, Stella! Come sit over here!" she called.

Stella stood up and was about to walk over when Erin grabbed Hershey's hand and jerked it down. Hershey's eyes widened and she slowly turned away from her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." he shrugged. "Guess she really did know."

"Don't be sorry. You didn't do anything…" Stella groaned, staring up at the cafeteria ceiling. She sipped another spaghetti noodle.

"I was saying I was sorry because I felt bad for you, alright?" Jacc sighed. He grabbed her fork and forced her to look at him.

"So...uh...now that Erin's gone, who do you have left?" he asked hopefully, drumming his fingers on the table.

"You. Obviously." Stella answered rolling her eyes. Jacc was about to jump with glee when Stella burst into laughter. "I'm obviously joking, Jacc."

"Oh." he frowned. "Thanks for getting my hope up, Stella."

"You're welcome." she giggled. "And I wasn't completely joking anyway."

"Okay then-wait what?! What did you say?" Jack almost shouted.

Stella shook her head. "I said that-"

The cafeteria room suddenly went quiet. Not even the sound of chewing could be heard. When Stella got suspicious and turned around to see why the place went quiet, she almost fell out of her chair. Daphnne was standing in front of the cafeteria tables, Ruth and a red-haired Octoling with green eyes and a long, black dress.

"Valerie…." Stella muttered under her breath, gazing intently at the red-haired Octoling.

"Good evening, Octolings." Daphnne smiled. "Sorry to interrupt your late dinner, but we have an announcement to make."

She then motioned toward Ruth and Valerie, who slowly stepped forward. Ruth had a tired look on her face and seemed to be very irritated about something. Daphnne had a slight smirk on her face, but her hands were clenched slightly and her eyes seemed more narrow than usual. Valerie also looked tired, but she also seemed somewhat...scared about something. What it was exactly, Stella had no clue.

"This will be very quick, so please try your best to pay attention." Daphnne continued. "But first off, how many of you like premieres?"

Stella froze. She looked around and noticed a bunch of hands shoot into the air instantly Hershey, especially. She was standing on top of her chair and waving her hand frantically.

"Mm, yes. I thought so. Well, how many of you would be jealous to hear that the inklings are having their own premiere?"

Now the _entire_ cafeteria besides Stella and Jacc was raising their hands, even the ones who didn't raise it for the first question. But since Stella and Jacc were sitting in the back, nobody noticed their hands down.

"Why is she asking questions?" Jacc asked.

"I don't know." Stella whispered back.

"Okay, a lot more hands. Well, how many of you would like to crash the inkling's premiere just for the fun of it?"

Very few hands shot into the air. Stella turned around and noticed Sushie raising her hand timidly. Stella tilted her head to the side and tapped her chin. Sushie was a peacemaker, wasn't she? Why would she bother crashing an inkling premiere for fun?

"Mm, very few. That's what I thought. Now, I promise this is the last question. How many of you would like to help me get back at the inklings during the premiere not for fun, but for revenge and to steal some stuff while we're at it?"

All hands shot into the air, even Jacc's. Stella was about to hiss at him when Jacc grabbed her hand and held it high into the air. She growled and tried to bite his arm, but it was no use.

"Excellent! Well, today is Tuesday, right? So, just to inform you all, tomorrow we'll be having a conference about what we're doing and how exactly we're going to lead the attack. Any questions?"

Sushie's hand shot into the air.

"Um...yes. The girl with the short orange hair in the back."

"When is the premiere exactly?" Sushie asked excitedly.

"This upcoming Saturday." Daphnne answered.

A slight mutter rose in the cafeteria. Instantly, many hands shot into the air.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking. 'Daphnne! That's not enough time! How do you know it's going to work?'"

She stepped back.

"Those questions won't be answered fully until tomorrow, but I can tell you this.

She smiled even more.

"There's a rumor going around between the four main spies that the premiere actually isn't this upcoming Saturday and it is being postponed. There are also rumors that it's being cancelled altogether. Whether it's true or not, we still need to act on this plan as if it's happening on Saturday. Now, any other questions?"

Stella slowly raised her hand.

"What are you doing?" Jacc mouthed in surprise.

"Just trust me on this, okay?" Stella mouthed back

"Yes, dear?" Daphnne smirked, pointing to Stella. "What's your question?"

"In order to get more information about the premiere, wouldn't it be best to place in more Octoling Spies throughout Inkopolis?" Stella asked, trying her best to make it seem like an innocent question.

Silence. Valerie froze. Ruth quickly looked down. Daphnne's smile flickered into a sort of frown but it immediately went back to a smirk.

"No, sweetie. That's too risky. We've already lost one spy trying to do that, you know."

"But if you plant in numerous, information will reach much more quickly." Stella continued.

"Stella, sit _down._ " Jacc growled. "Are you insane or something?"

"No. I'm testing her."

"Wha-"

"Let's get to that question later, okay?" Daphnne nodded through gritted teeth. She then folded her hands together and turned away. "Alright, you may continue with your dinner. Have a nice night, Octolings."

She turned away and exited the cafeteria. Her hands were clenched into fists even more now, and she seemed a lot tenser than when she first made the announcement.

"Hm." Stella muttered to herself.

"Stella, what the hell was that? You probably just pissed her off or something!"

"I know. Like I said, I was testing her." Stella muttered. She turned over to look at Erin's table. They were all whispering and glancing over at Stella suspiciously. When they noticed her staring, they all quickly turned away.

"Testing her for what?"

"For my plan, what else?"

"Okay Stella, what the hell did you eat this morning? First, you talk about how you didn't trust Daphnne, and now you're talking about how you want to test her? What exactly are you trying to accomplish?"

"If Erin won't follow my plan, I'll just have to get others to do it." Stella sighed. "That's what this is all about."

"If Daphnne finds out-"

"The hell is she gonna do? Lock me up? That will do jack shit. If I get enough Octolings to follow what I was doing, then it wouldn't matter."

"And how are you going to do that? What about me?"

"That's when you come into play, Jacc." Stella smiled, pointing her fork at him.

"Didn't you mention a long time ago that you and Sushie knew some anti-Daphnne Octolings in Compound 0.5?"

Jacc rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, yeah. But that was like a year ago. I'm not sure-"

"Can you still contact them?" Stella asked, biting into a meatball.

"Yes I can, but they might not be against her anymore-"

"Then do it. I need to find Ruth and talk to her about this. I know for a fact she doesn't support Daphnne either. Maybe she'll help me."

"Why?"

"Huh?

"Why Ruth? All she cares about is following the damn rules. And Daphnne is always finding loopholes and ways to alter them, so it's a complete waste of time! Do Valerie instead."

"But she doesn't support things that I'm doing. That's the main thing that got kicked Erin and me kicked down a compound. At least that's what Daphnne told me."

"Was it really because you were breaking rules, or because you weren't keeping up with your training schedule?" Jacc asked firmly, folding his arms.

"No, it was because…" Stella trailed off and suddenly gasped when she realized it. "Oh, you might be onto something!"

"See, isn't it obvious? Daphnne lied about it so you wouldn't perform any more plans of some sort."

"But Valerie was the one who kicked us out."

"Yes, but that was under Daphnne's instructions. Do you think she would've kicked you out if she was in charge?"

"No...but how do you know about all these things?"

"Stella, did you even bother reading the Compound Handbook?"

"That thing? You actually read it? That thing is like over 500 pages!"

"Well, not all at once. Over the couple months. The reason why no one reads it anymore is because Daphnne changes everything."

He then looked around and leaned forward towards Stella.

"Look, my mom knew Valerie back when she was a 0.2 Compound leader. And from her experience with Valerie, she did not support Daphnne at all. My mom would always tell stories about plans she supported that always failed because of lack of basis, not enough support, and so on. If we can maybe get enough support from the others first, then we can contact Valerie and see what she says."

"But we only have until Saturday, I just realized…" Stella muttered. "If we do succeed then…"

"Don't give up on your own plan." Jacc whispered. "And plus, you still have time." he nodded, reaching into his pocket.

"What? How do you know?" Stella asked suspiciously. "And what's in your pocket that's so interesting at a time like this?"

"Well, I _might've_ gotten my hands on a stolen SquidPhone today." he beamed, holding it out for Stella so see.

"Whoa! You did! It's-where did you get that, Jacc?" Stella asked in awe, reaching out to grab the phone.

"Ah ah, it's mine." Jacc smirked, moving the phone away from Stella. "And I got it from that dude who visits Inkopolis every so often. Cost me almost all my coins-"

"That you spent nearly two years earning, right?" Stella interrupted.

Jacc ignored her. "But it was all worth it." He turned on the phone.

"It's low battery, but I think it still has enough juice to show you how I know." he smiled. He opened the phone and entered in the pass code. "And that OctoDealer gave the pass code for free! Cool, huh?"

"Yeah, that's…" she quickly looked around and pushed the phone under the table. "Hide it before someone sees!"

"Don't worry, I won't get caught." Jacc mumbled, scrolling through apps. Once he came across what he was looking for, he opened the app and showed it to Stella.

"It's a post from one of the inkling pop stars. Apparently the other one is so sick she won't be better in time for the premiere on Saturday. They're trying to see if it'll be postponed because apparently the person who runs it usually cancels it or something."

Stella looked at Pearl's tweet and read it slowly and carefully. Then she smiled.

"We really have more time?"

"The post never lies, Stella. And plus, why would she lie about all that stuff?" he asked. Then he quickly put his SquidPhone away. "Did I help you whatsoever or nah?"

"Did you help me?! What kind of question is that?! Of course you did! Man, what would I do without you?" she laughed, causing Jacc to beam and blush at the same time.

"Gee, thanks. I'm glad something of mine paid off."

Stella laughed then looked at the clock. "Well, I'm going to head to my dorm. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

Jacc shrugged. "Yeah."

"Alright, bye." she waved, walking out of the cafeteria. As she left, Jacc couldn't help but think of one thing.

"Why is she acting a bit nicer to me all of a sudden?"

* * *

"I don't understand why you're making this so complicated, Daphnne." Valerie sighed, taking a long sip of tea from a pot. "Just because you're at a lower compound doesn't mean that it's not going to work. And plus, you rule over me for what I do in your compound. It's not like I have way more privileges."

"Yeah, why do you want more all of a sudden?" Ruth asked. "She and I gave you access to compounds 3, 2, and 1.5. Why are you so interested in Valerie's compounds all of a sudden?"

"Because the compounds I control aren't going to help in what I'm doing whatsoever." Daphnne answered, folding her arms together.

"Aside from a selective few and some test dummies here and there, nobody from Compound 1.5 or 2 is going to be in the plan. No one. And Compound 3 isn't even a compound. It's basically a prison. They just lock you off in cells for a long period of time and then later force you to do basic training that a 5-year-old could master if you managed to not go insane. And that was when _I_ was in charge of the compound. Who knows what the hell they do in there, now!"

"You don't run the compound anymore?" Valerie asked in surprise.

"I may run it, but I haven't checked on it in months. Everyone there is probably dead. And if that's true, then good riddance."

"Daphnne! Why would you say that?" Valerie gasped.

"Because Compound 3 is a useless piece of fucking garbage, that's why! Why can't that go into that head of yours for once?" Daphnne shouted, causing Valerie to back up.

"Alright, fine. If that's what you think then whatever. I'm tired of arguing about this anyway." Valerie snapped.

"No, now's not the time." Ruth sighed. "Please don't fight. It's going to get us nowhere."

Daphnne turned to Ruth and smiled slightly. "Ah Ruth. Since you're here, I need you to do me a favor and go talk to Stella. Find her dorm and talk to her."

"Who's Stella again?" Ruth asked.

Daphnne sighed. "The one who came here almost two days ago."

"Wait what?" Ruth gasped. "You want me to chat with the st-student who started the whole thing? Why?"

"Because she might know something that I don't…" Daphnne spoke through gritted teeth. "Besides, despite being all clever and whatnot, she wouldn't hurt a fly. Don't be so scared of her."

"But leaders can't control other leaders like that, Daphnne. You can't just make me go and talk to her." Ruth replied quietly.

"Ruth, I mean it. Don't do this to me. This could benefit us all if you actually went to talk to this girl." Daphnne snapped.

"I'm going to say it again. Go. Find. Stella."

Ruth sighed. "Fine. Don't expect me to come back here until tomorrow, though." she then turned around , walked outside into the front lobby, and then slammed the office door behind her.

Daphnne nodded. "Nice decision, Ruth."

"You do realize that she's right." Valerie frowned.

"And does it look like I give a damn, Valerie? The rules don't say that."

"Yeah, because you keep changing them! And besides, you may control me for specific instructions, but you don't rule over me! Same with Ruth!"

"That may be true," Daphnne began, looking down at some papers on the floor. "But, that doesn't excuse the fact that-"

"I knew I should've never given you that trust." Valerie blurted.

Daphnne's head snapped up.

"Well, you already did. Speak all you want, Valerie, but in order for this plan to succeed, _I_ got to be in charge. I do twice as much as you despite ruling over lower compounds, not to mention I supervise how Octoling weapons work and the technology that's created in Compound 2. If I take over your job, I control the main strategies, the emergency plans that usually work, and all the Octarian minion instructions."

"First of all, we haven't had an emergency plan in over two years. Secondly, instructors in Compound 0.5, not me, control Octarian minion instructions. Also, if you do take over my job, what the hell am I going to do?"

"I don't know, I guess we switch jobs?" Daphnne shrugged.

"Either way, it needs to happen. You just got to agree to it. That's all."

"Daphnne, I'm not doing this." Valerie snapped. "I like controlling strategies, the main technology that powers the other compounds, the spies, and much more."

"Then at least give me a piece of what you're working with so we can share somewhat equally. That's my final offer."

When Valerie said nothing, Daphnne sighed and brushed a lock of hair from her face.

"Alright, let me rephrase myself. If you don't want to switch roles, then give me some...well...a piece of what you so it'll be more equal."

Valerie shook her head.

"Just give me something to work with that comes from you, alright? I promise I won't abuse that power. I swear." Daphnne replied.

She turned toward the exit. "I'll give you till this morning to decide. Think about it while you're sleeping, okay?"

Silence.

" _Okay?_ "

More silence.

"Are you going to answer me or not? You have a voice, don't you?"

"No."

Daphnne was about to smirk, but then she slowly froze.

"What?"

"You wanted an answer, and here it is. The answer is no."

Daphnne turned around. "What did you say? I don't think I heard you correctly."

"You did." Valerie replied. "And I said no."

Daphnne froze. "N-no? That's not what I expected from you, especially since I gave you the easiest offer. Are you just being selfish, now?"

"No. I'm being cautious. I know what you're up to." Valerie responded.

"What on earth—"

Valerie walked up to Daphnne and shoved her violently.

"I may the youngest and the most naive leader so far, but I'm not falling for this, Daphnne. I know that you're going to mess everything up and organize everything so it goes in _your_ favor instead of our favor. I know for a fact you're not going to make anything we do equal. To think of it, does the word _equal_ even exist in your personal dictionary?"

"How dare you-" Daphnne began, but Valerie kept on talking.

"I'm done being nice. And I'm done trying to sugarcoat this."

She took a deep breath. "I know you, Daphnne. I know you're going to abuse that power. That 'Stella' girl that you talked to? You obviously aren't going to trust her. You're just going to take everything you two did and pass it off as your own. You've done it before, and you will do it again. I observe everything you do, you know."

"Hold up you little-"

"Well, I got news for you, alright? I'm not letting that happen to me as well! I don't trust you like that, and I never will! And besides, Compound 0.5 and 0.2 do very well on their own. I don't need to aid them that much. So face it you betrayer, I'm not giving you anything!"

Daphnne took a deep breath and looked down. Valerie folded her arms together and waited for Daphnne to admit the truth. To tell her that she had one the argument. Instead, something else happened.

Daphnne looked up slowly and pointed to Valerie, her arms shaking from rage.

"You….you…" she stuttered. "Nothing you said is true. NOTHING!"

Valerie jumped at the sound of her scream. She was so scared by Daphnne's reaction and what she was going to do that she couldn't speak.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Daphnne smirked. "Deny something else of mine I said, huh?"

Silence.

"I asked you a question! Speak!" Daphnne shouted.

"Your eyes! They're so...purple!" she finally managed to get out. "How...it's like they're...glowing…"

"I'm glad you noticed, dear." Daphnne laughed. "Do you like them? They're a special little feature of mine."

She approached Valerie menacingly and pulled a blaster from behind her back. Valerie began to panic at the sight of it and began to start toward the door.

"Don't move!" Daphnne growled, squeezing the blaster slightly. Her voice was a lot more rigid than usual, and any trace of mercy in it was gone. As soon as Valerie froze, Daphnne aimed it at her.

"You like my weapon, sweetheart? I stole it from Compound 2. They're _really_ good at making lethal weapons. You should check them out sometime."

Valerie opened her mouth to speak, but decided to save it. If she made any smartass comments now, who knew what Daphnne would do to her.

"Now, let's make this straightforward like you said because I don't feel like sugarcoating this either." Daphnne began.

"Hand over that ruler job until the end of the mission, and you live. I swear to god, I will kill you if you don't. I gave you an offer, and you refused. Now we're going back to the original."

"Over a leader job?" Valerie squeaked, confused, despite being terrified now. That...that seems...you wouldn't do that-"

Daphnne put the blaster against Valerie's neck and backed her against the wall, causing her to wince. She shut her eyes tight and tried her best not to cry.

"I would do that. I need my power. You know this."

Silence. Valerie had lost her ability to speak once again.

"Face it, bitch." Daphnne began. "You know I'm much more special, talented, and clever than you. You know I have more ability to control what I need compared to Ruth and especially _you._ Call me cruel if you want, but it's the damn truth. Do you believe it's the damn truth?" she growled, her eyes getting more and more purple by the second.

Out of fear of getting shot, Valerie nodded slowly.

"So, I'm going to warn you one more time. You have until this morning to hand it over to me. Or there's only going to be two rulers in this facility once I'm done with you. You got that?" she snapped, pressing the blaster even harder against Valerie's' neck.

Valerie nodded again, beads of sweat and tears now dripping down her face. She was finding it hard to breathe now with the cold metal now digging into her neck.

"So, think of it." Daphnne snapped, and shoved her hard against the wall. She moved the blaster away and slid it in her pocket.

"And if you tell anyone about this, I swear...I won't kill you, but I'll make your life a living hell. I will make sure that every step you take will make you feel pain. I will make sure that every breath will make you wince. And most of all, I'll make sure that anything related to me, Ruth, or this entire facility will make you cry out in pain and sorrow. I will make sure of that. Got it?"

Silence.

"You have a voice, don't you? Speak!"

"Yes…" Valerie coughed.

"That's better. Now goodnight. I'll be meeting with you again tomorrow." Daphnne nodded. Then she walked out of the office and closed the door gently behind her.

Once she was sure she was gone, Valerie gasped and slid to the ground of the office. Then she put her head in her hands.

"Why must people like her exist?" she growled, rubbing her neck. "I know she'll kill me but I can't...I can't let her take my role from me."

She went to the mirror to take a look at herself. Aside from the large red mark on her neck caused by Daphnne's blaster, she was fine. She wasn't injured.

"I...I got to get help. I need to stop her." Valerie whispered, tears now falling down her face even faster than before.. "But the question is, who can...who can help me?"

* * *

 _You see it, don't you?_

Hailey's eyes snapped open. She sat up and looked around the dark room, trying to remember her name, he existence, her friends. As it all came to her, she slowly relaxed. Her name was Hailey and she was spending the night at Jet and Ari's. Well, spending the week.

"But what was that voice?" Hailey muttered to herself, trying to think. She didn't notice any blue squares or white wisps, so she wasn't hallucinating again. But the voice sounded familiar, and it definitely wasn't from a dream.

"No, just go back to sleep, Hailey. It's probably about 2am right now." she told herself fiercely. She put her head on her pillow and closed her eyes tight, listening to the ticking of the clock. Eventually, her breathing became even and her head became foggy as she slowly fell asleep.

 _Now you see it?_

"Huh?" Hailey muttered. She wasn't in her bed. She was quite a few feet up in the air, staring over at a match that was going on in Port Mackerel.

"See what?" Hailey asked.

 _The beauty of what you're doing._

Hailey froze. That voice was a lot more familiar than she thought. It sounded like someone was talking to her, even though there was no one around her. It was like the voice was coming from her head, just like before when she saw those blue squares in her apartment bathroom.

"What?" Hailey gasped as a long row of burst bombs suddenly launched from her palm. Then the entire stage turned teal, and the people below her suddenly gasped in surprise.

"What the-what's going on?" Hailey muttered.

 _You can see it, can't you?_

"See what?" Hailey asked nervously.

 _This._

Hailey looked up into the sky and nearly gasped. A huge missile came down from out of nowhere and slammed into the base of the enemies, killing all of them instantly. Hailey stepped back, alarmed, only to throw another wave of burst bombs and three curling bombs.

"What the hell is going on?! Was that an ink strike?!"

 _Yes, it was. Lovely, wasn't it?_

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Hailey snapped. She felt herself move and tried to stop herself, only to launch a wave of Tenta Missiles that came out of nowhere. She almost screamed.

"Why can't I control myself?!"

 _Because it's not the real you._

Hailey suddenly felt angry.

"Yes it is! Why else would I be throwing Splat bombs?!" she screamed, wincing as a huge wave of Splat Bombs dropped down in the middle of the port.

 _It's not the real you._

"Just tell me what the hell is going on!" Hailey screamed. Her head began to pound violently and she clutched it in agony. The people below her were screaming and flailing their arms, even the people that happened to be on her team.

"Am...I the one doing this?!"

 _No, I said it wasn't the real you._

"Just tell me, am I going to be having visions again?! Why is this happening to me?"

 _You won't have visions again. The coding has created a new you._

"What?!"

 _The coding has created a new you. And that new you is to wreak havoc on the Square._

"Stop it! Just stop it! And don't impersonate me! Get rid of the imposter now!"

 _No._

"No? What do you mean 'no'? Just stop it before I get in trouble!"

" _You won't get in trouble!"_

"Yes, I will! People like this will get banned! I don't want to get banned."

 _"You won't get in trouble….if you let me help you."_

"Help me?! With what?"

 _It's like I asked you before. Do you want me to help you?_

Hailey stumbled back. She clutched her forehead and tried to think. A wave of burst bombs exploded all over the Port, causing more screams to be emitted into the air. Judd blew his whistle and pointed to the train, telling the inklings to quickly leave.

" _Do you want me to help you?"_

Hailey was about to yell at the voice to make her leave her head, but something in her mind snapped. Maybe if she agreed, the visions/hallucinations would no longer happen.

"If I….if I….say yes, will the...visions end? Will this nightmare end?" Hailey asked, starting to tremble..

 _The visions will end. We don't need to test you anymore._

"T-test?"

 _You'll know soon enough._

"And what...about the nightmare?"

 _"This isn't a nightmare, Hailey. What you're seeing is happening right now."  
_

"No…."

 _Yes._

That's when Hailey screamed.

 **No joke, this chapter alone takes up 52 pages. Fifty. Two. Holy crap.  
**

 **Anyways, that's it for now. I'm not sure when Chapter 6 will come out, but it will be out before the new year, along with a Christmas special and Chapter 7(hopefully). But unfortunately, I'm not the best at keeping promises.**

 **Well, uh, review if you'd like!**

 **Oh, and in case you're wondering, Valerie is pronounced Vah-Luh-Ree and Daphnne is pronounced Daff-Knee. Just thought it'd be nice to get that out of the way just in case.**


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